


Kiss Me Before Sunrise

by LadyofHeart



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, ashe has a cat named loog and it is very important, sylvain has a dog named angel because i was not naming it lance of ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2020-10-25 15:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20726342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofHeart/pseuds/LadyofHeart
Summary: Ashe moves into a new apartment, and unfortunately his neighbor turns out to be both noisy and hot.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Carole & Tuesday OP because that shit slaps. I didn't mean to put so much effort into this since I've just been trying to get through Ashe ships, but something about these two together just made me really happy while writing, so I hope this makes you happy while reading!

“Thanks for helping me with this,” Ashe said to Caspar as they settled the last box in his new apartment. All the excitement of moving to a new place had quickly left as they brought more boxes up, and knowing that he now had to unpack all of these made him want to join Linhardt in the corner of the living room and curl up into a sleeping ball. Really, Linhardt had been useless during the whole process, but at least Ashe’s cat seemed happy to curl up next to him for a nap.

“It was nothing,” Caspar said, flexing as if moving boxes had just replaced his morning workout for the day. It probably had. “Do you want us to help with anything else?”

Ashe glanced out the window. “Nah, I can unpack the rest of this. I know you two have other things to do today.”

Caspar gently nudged at Linhardt with his toe. “Alright, but if you got any problems, call and I’ll be here. It’s not a long ride.”

Ashe smiled. “I know. Thanks.”

Linhardt gave a loud yawn, startling the cat right into Caspar’s hands.

“Oh, I’m gonna miss you so much,” Caspar said to the cat, pressing its nose to his and talking in a baby voice. “Yes, I am! I’m gonna miss you  _ so  _ much, Loog!” Ashe sighed, wishing he got half the fanfare of a goodbye that his own cat did.

Linhardt got up and stretched, rolling his eyes at Caspar’s antics. “Come on Caspar, put the cat down.”

Caspar’s sentences had devolved into incoherent mush as he slowly put Loog back on the ground. He grabbed Linhardt’s hand as they walked toward the door.

“See you around,” Linhardt said.

“See you guys,” Ashe said.

“And don’t forget!” Caspar chimed up. “That if anyone gives you trouble here, I’ll take care of them.”

“I know,” Ashe said, smiling weakly.  _ I will make sure to call you if I want to be thrown out of my apartment in the first week. _ He waved to them as they left, and then it was just him and Loog to sort through his boxes.

Well, it wasn’t going to sort itself, and he kind of liked being able to organize everything into the proper spot. The apartment wasn’t particularly large, but he was excited to have a space all his own. He was going to miss his siblings of course, and it was a bit sad that he would no longer pass Caspar and Linhardt’s houses every morning, but this was a step towards independence he had been wanting to take for a long time.

Plus, he really liked having a balcony.

Loog brushed up against his leg, peering up curiously with bright blue eyes. No doubt hungry already. He pulled out the cat dish and food from a nearby box and set it up for him. He couldn’t blame him, Ashe was starting to feel a bit hungry, too, and he definitely wasn’t in the mood to cook his own meal after all the moving and unpacking. He opted instead to go out and eat to save himself the time and get a better view of the town.

When he opened the door, he was greeted by two people in the middle of walking down the hall; one familiar and one not. He blinked in surprise.

“Ingrid?” he said. She had been walking with a taller handsome man with messy red hair that he didn’t recognize at all.

“Ashe? You  _ live  _ here?”

“Um, as of today, yes. I told you I was moving, didn’t I?”

She nodded eagerly. “Yes, you did! I just didn’t think you’d be here of all places. What a small world!”

“Um,” said the guy with her, tilting his head in confusion. “It’d be rude to just leave me out, right?”

“Oh, sorry. Ashe, this is Sylvain.”

“Hi,” Sylvain said, offering out his hand. His handshake was quite firm. “I heard about someone moving next door. How do you know Ingrid?”

“We met online,” Ashe said, leaving out that it had been on a forum for a series of books they both loved. “We’ve video chatted a few times, that’s why I recognized her.”

Sylvain gave a mischievous look to Ingrid and put an arm around her casually. “You two met online, huh?”

Ingrid shoved his arm off. “Stop that, we’re just friends.”

“Of course, of course! I didn’t suggest otherwise, did I?”

Ingrid rolled her eyes. “Anyways. I won’t hold you up, but it was great to see you Ashe! I don’t live in the building, so if Sylvain gives you any trouble just let me know, okay?”

Ashe looked curiously at Sylvain.  _ He seems nice. _

Sylvain cleared his throat. “I’ll have you know that I make a great neighbor, ‘kay? Very courteous and all that.”

“Your dog is more courteous than you,” she admonished.

Ashe tilted his head. “Dog?” It must have been a little one then, since they weren’t allowed any large pets. 

“Yeah, she’s the best,” Sylvain said. “Got any pets?”

“Actually--”

Ingrid gasped before he could finish his sentence. “Do you still have  _ Loog? _ ”

He smiled. “Of course I do, though he’s getting a bit old.”

Sylvain snorted. “Loog? Really? This is from that book series we read as kids, right?”

Ingrid crossed her arms. “They’re still very good pieces of literature for adults, too.”

“They hold up quite well,” Ashe agreed.

“Anyway,” Ingrid said. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing more you around now.”

“I look forward to it,” he said, and then left them to return to Sylvain’s apartment. Well, that had been a pleasant surprise. Ingrid had been a really valuable friend over the years, even if he had never met her in person before. He hadn’t been able to talk to Caspar about the stories because he never bothered to pick up a book, and Linhardt had lost interest after the first chapter.

He was curious about Sylvain, too. Ingrid had never talked much about her friends, except one named Dimitri who she swore up and down looked exactly like how she pictured Loog, and he had always been curious why. There had been plenty of times where he had ranted to her about Caspar’s temper or Linhardt apathy, and Sylvain seemed like a perfectly normal person.

By the time he got home the sun had long since set and Loog was loudly calling out for him behind the closed door. Barring his cat, the silence of the apartment was unusual to him. Typically his siblings would be coming up to him to happily talk about their day and ask about his before derailing into some other conversation. Now, it was just him and Loog.  _ Gonna have to get used to that. _

At first, things were fine. He slowly adjusted to his new life and made sure to not miss any of Caspar’s calls, lest he wanted him to break down his apartment door in a panic and throw a tantrum about ‘totally being ignored’ with a very tired Linhardt in tow, and generally kept to himself.

And then the shouting began.

Occasionally, he had seen women walk out of Sylvain’s apartment early in the morning while he was on his way to work. It wasn’t really any of his business what Sylvain got up to, and though the thin walls left little up to the imagination regarding what they were doing in there, Ashe refused to let it get to him and was content to ignore it. But the  _ yelling  _ was new and definitely annoying. 

He laid in his bed, eyes wide open, as the poor woman yelled herself hoarse over something Ashe couldn’t quite make out. A lover’s quarrel? He had never seen the same woman twice come out of that apartment, though. It honestly didn’t matter. Whatever they were arguing over was not worth hearing at two in the morning. He turned to his phone solemnly.

**Ashe: ** your friend seems to have a lot of company huh

**Ingrid: ** god im so sorry

**Ingrid: ** we’re working on that 

**Ashe: ** no, its fine. I kind of hope everything’s okay theres been a lot of yelling

**Ingrid: ** yeah thats normal hes fine

**Ashe: ** its

**Ashe: ** its normal???

He paused as there was a particularly loud thump next door. This was something that always happened? Well, now he was even more concerned.

**Ingrid: ** i’ll scold him tomorrow promise

**Ashe: ** its okay

**Ingrid: ** try to get some sleep :^)

That was easier said than done. Just as he was beginning to doze off he was jolted wide awake by the sound of a door slamming closed. Next to him Loog jumped up, his little cat eyes glancing back and forth frantically. Ashe waited with bated breath for any other sound, but nothing came. Concern ate at him as he tried to go back to sleep, and by the time he fell asleep it was already time to get up and get back to work. 

Normally he could keep up a pretty chipper face as a waiter, but the lack of sleep took its toll.  _ I hope Ingrid and I have different definitions of normal,  _ he thought sullenly. But no, normal seemed to be the applicable word when the same thing happened next week, but this time with a different woman. Ashe had actually gotten to see her when she stormed out of Sylvain’s in the apartment, and while he appreciated that the argument had happened in the middle of the day, it still was jarring to see her coming out looking like she was ready to reign hell on whoever talked to her. Needless to say, Ashe kept his mouth shut and quickly shuffled into his apartment.

The next morning he tiredly took his cup of sweetened tea out to his balcony to enjoy it with the rising sun. The summer heat hadn’t quite wound itself up yet and the town below hadn’t really started waking up yet. The perfect time, really.

“Hey.”

The voice startled Ashe so bad that he nearly dropped his cup and burned himself with some of the tea in the process.

“Whoa, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

Ashe looked to his left to see that Sylvain was out on his own balcony, looking over at him with concern. He must have just woken up, because his hair was messy, and the only thing he was wearing was a pair of very comfortable looking pajama pants. Ashe tried not to linger too much on his bare chest, but he noted that Sylvain clearly kept up a workout routine of some sort.

“I just, uh, didn’t notice you there,” said Ashe as he put his cup down on the nearby chair. He really needed to get a table out here. 

Sylvain casually leaned against the railing of his balcony. “So, how you’ve been so far? Do you like it here?”

“It’s nice,” Ashe said. And mostly, it was. “Living in an apartment is a change of pace for me though. I’m not used to hearing so… much.”

Sylvain quirked an eyebrow, and the lopsided grin on his face really suited him. “Not liking what you’re hearing?”

The lilt in his voice was enough to make Ashe blush. “N-not when it’s your arguments every other day!” Ashe said quickly before he could imply hearing  _ other  _ things from Sylvain’s apartment.

“Oh, but the other stuff is fine?”

“That’s not what I meant! I just think you should have less arguments is all, if you don’t want people knowing your business.” Not that Ashe could blame Sylvain for the yelling. For all that he heard, not once did Sylvain’s voice rise loud enough to carry through the wall. It was mostly the righteously angry women.

Sylvain shrugged his shoulders. “Matters of the heart are a loud and complicated thing, Ashe. Surely you understand, no?”

_ No!  _ Ashe grimaced. “I don’t think they normally end in so much anger.”

“Then you haven’t been wrapped up in enough of them.”

That was… fair. The only proximity he had to romance was Linhardt and Caspar, and he hadn’t even realized they were dating until months after the fact. “Maybe not.”

“But I’ll try to keep it down,” Sylvain said. “If you come over some time, I can make it up to you.”

Ashe’s heart leapt to his throat. “Oh, w-what? I-I don’t--”

“I mean since you’re Ingrid’s friend and all, we should get to know each other, right?”

Sylvain had  _ definitely  _ paused just so Ashe got the wrong idea and became flustered. “Of course! Because of Ingrid, right.” He hastily reached for his tea just so he had something else to focus on for a moment.

“Well, I look forward to seeing more of you,” Sylvain said. He gave a wave and then disappeared back inside his apartment.

Ashe let out an exhausted sigh. Well, he hardly needed the tea to wake him up now! 

  
  
  
  
  


“ _ Ashe, _ ” Christophe said on the other end of the phone, sounding exasperated. Ashe was standing outside his job on break, staring at the brick wall of the building next door with his phone pressed close to his ear. “ _ When I called to ask how things are going, I didn’t mean give me a five paged essay on your neighbor. _ ”

Ashe didn’t personally think he was talking about Sylvain all that much. It just so happened that the most interesting parts of his day, besides weird customers, was his odd neighbor. “Sorry, he’s just, I don’t know, the most interesting part so far.”

“ _ I can tell you think he’s interesting, that’s for sure. _ ”

“I’m just saying is all!”

Christophe chuckled. “ _ I’m teasing, Ashe. But everything else is fine, right? You’re doing okay?” _

“Yeah, I’m good. You don’t have to worry about me so much.”

“ _ Yeah, maybe I should be worried about your neighbor. Hey, if things start getting intense, you can always come home. _ ”

“I can handle it.” He glanced down at his watch. “I have to get back to work, but I’ll talk to you later.”

“ _ See ya, kid.” _

Ashe hung up and shuffled back inside to finish his shift. He was one of the few waiters working here that could claim he somewhat enjoyed his job. It was a high end restaurant, and the customers could be a little stuffy, but it reminded him of being a kid in his parents’ restaurant and that was enough to keep a pleasant smile on his face through the night.

But it was such an expensive restaurant that the last thing he expected to see was a familiar face at a table he was waiting. 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Sylvain said. His date, yet another woman Ashe didn’t recognize, looked at him curiously. Sylvain cleaned up nicely, with his hair combed neatly and a very expensive looking suit on his body. Pretty much the opposite of what Ashe had witnessed on the balcony.  _ I’ve already seen too much of this man and I barely know him. Is it too late to call Christophe back? _

“Uh, hello,” Ashe said, working off his shock. How was it that Ashe lived right next door to his man and worked an average job, and yet Sylvain was able to afford a dinner here? Maybe even a dinner for the both of them! “U-um, I mean, I’ll be your waiter tonight!”

Ashe didn’t try to linger for conversation and quickly took their orders. After all, he didn’t want to impose on his date. Sylvain, on the other hand, seemed to want to start one every time Ashe came back to their table, even if it was just to refill their water.  _ Doesn’t he care about entertaining his date?  _ Actually, she looked pretty entranced with Sylvain no matter what he was saying, so maybe it didn’t matter. He wondered how Sylvain met so many new people so easily.

The evening grew later, and Sylvain eventually left with his date, looking only slightly upset when Ashe quickly cut off another attempt at conversation. He did have other people to serve, after all. He picked up the cheque and glanced at the tip. Paused. Looked up to the door to see that Sylvain and his date were already gone.

_ This is too much,  _ Ashe concluded after a moment. This was way too much of a tip, especially on top of what they already paid for their dinner. And he had hardly talked to him! He couldn’t rush out and find him, and he wouldn’t dare try to knock on his apartment door tonight when he knew he had a woman in tow, so he resorted to waiting for his shift to end before aggressively texting Ingrid.

**Ashe: ** I need Sylvain’s number

**Ingrid: ** what why

**Ashe: ** He showed up at my job and left this huge tip

**Ashe:** He cant possibly have all that money

**Ingrid: ** ehhh he kind of does

**Ingrid: ** but i’ll give it to you hold on

**Ingrid: ** oh and also stop texting me so late at night some of us have normal sleep schedules

Ashe winced. Yeah, fair, he kept bothering her at really late hours, and he knew she was a woman of routine. He stared down at his phone as he took the bus home, unsure of how he wanted to start the message to Sylvain off. Was it appropriate to be texting him when Ashe knew he had someone over? Maybe he would just leave him a message and wait for Sylvain to get back to him in the morning. That wasn’t rude, right?

He decided to send a quick message before he could wimp out and shut off his phone so he didn’t think about it too heavily. When he got into his apartment he could hear muffled talking from Sylvain’s. Ashe had witnessed how much him and his date had to drink, so the loud voices made sense. Loog was even louder, however, demanding that Ashe open his bedroom door so the cat could properly settle into his bed as if he owned it.

Ashe settled down comfortably into his bed, exhaustion from being on his feet all day hitting him like a train. His phone buzzed next to him.

**Sylvain: ** if you wanted my number you didnt have to go through ingrid, but no, i didnt miscalculate, the tips all yours ;)

Of course he would be someone to use a winking emoji. Still, Ashe couldn’t shake the guilt of being handed that much money. 

**Ashe: ** But it’s really too much. I wasn’t even that entertaining of a waiter.

**Sylvain: ** consider it my payment for the noise then

Ashe paused and looked up from his phone. He could still hear the woman with Sylvain talking. Was he just ignoring his date now? 

**Sylvain: ** or better yet, let me in on some of that cooking i keep smelling

**Ashe: ** Oh, I didn’t realize you could smell it from your apartment. I’d be happy to share some! I’m off tomorrow, if you’d like.

**Sylvain: ** sounds like a date~

Ashe hesitated for a moment. Right, of course, that was just a normal saying. It was probably best if he left Sylvain to  _ his  _ date, however, and tried to catch some sleep before he had to worry about having a guest over. 

Predictably, Loog was under foot all day as Ashe tried to whip his apartment into shape. Sylvain arrived early in the morning, so maybe his date hadn’t stayed the night.

“Wow, you really did not decorate much,” Sylvain observed as he walked in. He was so tall that he made the space around him seem smaller.

Ashe looked around self consciously. “Oh, um, I guess not.”

Sylvain spotted Loog napping underneath the nearby window, basking in the sunlight drowsily. “That’s Loog, right? Man, I can’t believe there’s someone as nerdy as Ingrid.”

“They’re good books,” Ashe protested. 

“I remember bits and pieces,” Sylvain admitted. “Ingrid had everyone reading it when we were kids.”

Ashe began to take things out of his fridge to prepare for cooking. Pancakes were probably a safe bet at this time of day, and he had never met someone who didn’t like pancakes. “So you’ve known Ingrid for a long time then?”

“Yeah, since we were little. She was totally obsessed with those stories. I think some days she wishes she was a knight like in medieval times, even now.”

“I think it’d be cool to be a knight for a day,” Ashe said. “They were pillars of chivalry and justice, and they were always willing to help people.”

Sylvain snorted. “Supposedly. With ideals like that, what are you doing waiting tables at a high end restaurant? You sound like you should be like, I don’t know, in public works.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ashe said. “But I like my job right now. My parents owned a restaurant, so it feels familiar.”

“Really?” Sylvain watched as Ashe set up the ingredients. “So I’m guessing they taught you to cook.”

“Oh, not really. I just sort of watched and picked it up from there. Um, here if you want to mix this together,” Ashe said as he handed him a bowl of dry ingredients. “Can I ask what you do for a living?” The question had been stuck with him all night.

Sylvain’s face became unreadable as he idly mixed the ingredients together. “My dad owns a big business, so I just work for him. Nothing special.”

It must have been a  _ really  _ big business to afford last night’s meal. “That must be nice though, to work with family.” Lonato had offered Ashe a job with Christophe at his own work, but Ashe turned it down. Maybe one day in the future he could take it up, but he wanted to try life on his own for a bit before that.

Sylvain shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess. I don’t exactly have the most, uh, functional family. But hey, you said your parents  _ owned  _ a restaurant, right? What happened to it? Is that why you’re working out here?”

Ashe stared down at the whipping cream he was slowly trying to whip up. “Oh, um. They aren’t around anymore. And I don’t know the person that bought it all that well, so…”

The silence was unintended and awkward.

“Sorry about that,” Sylvain said.

“It’s okay.”  _ Quick, change the topic, before things get even more awkward.  _

Luckily, Sylvain beat him to it as he glanced around at all the ingredients Ashe had pulled out. “This seems like a lot of effort for pancakes.”

“Good pancakes take effort,” Ashe said with a smile. 

“See, I just pull out the box mix, pour some milk in, mix it up and call it a day.”

Ashe grimaced. “But those are so bland.”

“Fair. Probably why I eat out so often.”

_ You certainly can afford to.  _ Ashe combined the last of the ingredients and began to cook the pancakes, shaping them into small circles the way he always had done for his little siblings. He served them to Sylvain first.

“Well, they certainly smell way better than the box mix kind,” he noted before taking a bite. Ashe waited pensively for his response. He didn’t consider himself an amazing cook by any standard, but he was the best in his family. 

“Dude, this is  _ so  _ good,” Sylvain said after a moment. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, really! Man, you could probably start your own restaurant with just these.”

Ashe blushed under all the praise. “Thanks. I wouldn’t say pancakes are my strong suit, but I’m glad you like them.” 

“Don’t be so modest,” Sylvain said. “Hey, I’m having Ingrid and a few others over this weekend, you should totally help me with like, snacks and stuff.”

He hadn’t seen Ingrid since the first day he moved here, so he nodded his head. “I’d be happy to help out.”

“Great! I’m sure Ingrid will be totally happy to introduce you to Dimitri and Felix. Especially Felix. He’s great.” Sylvain’s smile was genuine, but Ashe could detect a hint of slyness in his eyes. He shrugged it off.

“I look forward to it then.” 

Sylvain didn’t linger long after they finished eating, something about a boring meeting he had to get to, and Ashe didn’t see him or hear anything from his apartment until the day Sylvain had his friends over.

Sylvain’s apartment was far more decorated than Ashe’s, mostly sticking to warm colors and abstract paintings, but it was also meticulously clean, which was odd, because Sylvain didn’t strike Ashe as someone who really cared about messes. Ashe could barely get a greeting out before he spotted something much more curious.

“Your dog,” he said as Sylvain closed the door behind him.

“Oh yeah, that’s Angel. Named that because, obviously, she’s a total angel.”

“Sylvain, she’s also totally  _ huge. _ ” Where he had expected something small and refined, like a little lap dog, he found instead he was staring at a giant gray and white dog, a Great Dane perhaps, that was lazily laying across the couch and taking up all of it. “I-I don’t get it, isn’t there a restriction on pets that big?” 

“There may be a tiny rule on that,” Sylvain said. He placed a hand on Ashe’s shoulder, and his touch was warm and sturdy. “But you’re not gonna snitch, right?”

Ashe shook his head. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. “No, of course not! But how did I not even notice? I didn’t hear any barking or see you go out to walk her--”

Sylvain’s soft laugh cut him off. “She’s well trained, and I hire someone to walk her. I think you’re just always at work during those hours.”

Ashe blinked, still stuck on the sound of that little laugh, and now the hand that was lingering on his shoulder. Sylvain tilted his head at his silence and Ashe scrambled to come back to the conversation. “Uh, you’re probably right! A-anyway, we should start making the food before your friends come.”

Ashe didn’t like the way his mind lingered on where Sylvain’s hand had been, or how he felt more attentive to where he was in the kitchen as they made mini pizzas together.  _ Maybe I’m just lonely,  _ he pondered. Other than a few video calls, he hadn’t really seen friends or family face to face in a while, barring Sylvain. Besides, he  _ had  _ to be aware of what Sylvain was doing in the kitchen unless he wanted to bump into him. It was totally normal.

“Mini pizzas were a good idea,” Ashe observed.

“I’ve been prone to a good idea once and awhile,” Sylvain joked. “But it’s really the best way to satisfy everyone. There have been plenty of arguments about food in the past between us all.”

Ashe could relate. You couldn’t please everyone, after all. There was a knock on the door and Angel picked up her head, finally moved from her nap. That dog might have been lazier than Linhardt and Loog combined.

“I’ll get it,” Sylvain said, letting Ashe finish up the last of the pizzas. 

From the kitchen, Ashe couldn’t see who had arrived, but he didn’t recognize the deep voice that came from the door, so it definitely wasn’t Ingrid. Sylvain pulled the guest into the kitchen, and Ashe instantly knew it had be Dimitri, because Ingrid was totally right, this man looked like the spitting image of Loog from the books. From his blue eyes to the way his long blond hair was tied back messily with his bangs sweeping in his elegant face.

“Ashe, this is Dimitri. Dimitri, Ashe,” Sylvain introduced.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ashe said.

“Likewise. I’ve heard a lot about you from Sylvain, but it’s nice to put a face to the name.”

Ashe glanced at Sylvain, but he had an unreadable smile on his face. What sort of things did Sylvain say about him? Somehow, he didn’t think he’d be as curious if Dimitri said Ingrid had talked about him. 

Ingrid and Felix arrived not too long after, and Sylvain gathered them in his living room while he left the pizzas to cook. Angel leapt off the couch to bother Felix who sat in a chair pulled closer to the coffee table, leaving space for Sylvain, Ashe, Dimitri and Ingrid on the couch. 

“Okay,” Ingrid began. “Can we please keep the language tame?” she said with a gesture to the board game Sylvain had set up. Monopoly. Always a classic.

“What, afraid we’re gonna embarrass you?” Sylvain teased. He leaned closer to Ashe and said, “She doesn’t want you thinking she has crazy friends. Which sucks for her, because she totally does.” 

Ingrid rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying no one needs to be crying at the end of the night because they can’t take the heat.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Quit yapping and start the game already,” Felix said with narrowed eyes. 

“Alright, alright,” Sylvain said, beginning his turn. Right off the bat there was tension between Sylvain and Ingrid, and suddenly Ashe wished he wasn’t sitting right between them. He should have sat next to Dimitri, who just looked pleased to be there.

“Lucky roll,” Ingrid said as Sylvain landed on the first railroad and purchased it.

“Is it luck, dear Ingrid?” he teased.

“You can’t convince me there’s a ‘special way’ to roll dice.”

Ashe tilted his head and looked at Sylvain. “Is there?”

“Of course,” he said at the same time Ingrid said, “Definitely not.”

“I think it leans more towards luck,” Dimitri said with none of the tension the other two had.

“Of course you do,” Felix said snidely. 

Ashe could already feel a headache brewing.

The game continued on with Ashe not making any outstanding purchases. Felix was aggressively snatching up whatever he landed on, and petting Angel’s head as she rested it in his lap definitely made him look like some movie villain. Ingrid was a little more conservative with her moves, and everything Sylvain did seemed calculated, like he was three steps ahead of the rest. Poor Dimitri hadn’t even had a chance to purchase a tile yet.

“Sylvain,” Felix said in a low, threatening tone as Sylvain moved his piece onto the last property Felix needed to buy to have a monopoly. “Do not.” Ashe felt a chill go up his spine.

“I can’t just pass up a perfectly good piece of property, Felix,” Sylvain said innocently as he began to pull out the paper money to purchase it.

“I’ll kill you.”

“I think I’m gonna take those chances.” He placed the newly purchased property card with the rest of his.

Ingrid put her head in her hands. “How do you already have half the board Sylv,” she groaned.

“I’m open to trades,” he said, still holding Felix’s glower. 

It was chaos from then on out. Sylvain, Felix and Ingrid all got very loud about the placement of hotels and offering up trades so often and aggressively that Ashe couldn’t even keep track of who owned what. He was  _ pretty  _ sure they were still playing Monopoly and not negotiating real world contracts, but who knew at this point. Luckily, the game came to a natural timeout as the pizzas finished cooking.

“Didn’t know you took up cooking as a hobby,” Felix said as Sylvain and Ashe brought them to the living room.

“It’s all Ashe,” Sylvain said. “He’s a natural in the kitchen.” He absolutely did not need to wink at Ashe as he said that, but he did, and Ashe could only hope his face wasn’t too flushed.

“I only helped a little,” Ashe said. “After all, it’s Sylvain who picked all the individual toppings.” He tried not to think too hard about how heavily Sylvain had piled on the cheese for Dimitri or the weird, extreme spices he gave to Felix. Though, it was quite sweet that he knew his friends so well, because they both looked very pleased with their food.

“You both did a good job then,” Dimitri said. 

Sylvain placed his plate on his lap and reached his arm around Ashe to flick the side of Ingrid’s head. She shooed his hand away, not looking up from her phone.

“Texting your boyfriend?” Sylvain teased, leaning closer to Ashe so he could try and snatch a look at her phone screen. Now he was squished between the two of them, and Sylvain still kept his arm around the back of the couch, caging him in further.

“Yes,” Ingrid said matter-of-factly. Ashe awkwardly stared at the table in front of them, not wanting to peep on Ingrid’s conversation or stare at Sylvain, who was just way too close to his face now.

“What’s he want?”

“He’s just checking in. Ah, he wants pictures of Angel. Of course.” She raised her phone to take the picture, not caring that she caught some rather silly looking shots of Felix eating his pizza next to Angel.

Sylvain snorted as he looked at the pictures. “Lookin’ good, Felix.”

“Shut up.”

“How come Glenn didn’t join us?” Dimitri asked. Ashe gave an inquisitive look to Ingrid since if he turned his head he would just knock right into Sylvain’s face.

“Our old man wanted help at the office,” Felix said idly around a bite of food.

Ingrid blinked at Ashe. “Oh, right. I didn’t tell you about Glenn. He’s Felix’s older brother and we’re, well, dating.”

“Maybe you’ll meet him one day,” Sylvain said, finally pulling back and giving Ashe his space. Luckily, no one pointed out Ashe’s sigh of relief. “Luckily, they’re not an obnoxious couple.”

Ingrid smiled wryly. “The only one whose obnoxious in a relationship is you.”

“If he manages to keep it for more than a day,” Felix said.

“Alright, I did not invite you into my house to be treated like this.”

“I think you’d be better off if you didn’t pursue them with the intention of breaking up so quickly,” Dimitri said.

“You could apply yourself to so many other things if you gave yourself that sort of time instead of flirting with whatever moves,” Ingrid said.

_ So his relationships are worse than I thought.  _ Ashe knew it wasn’t exactly his business, but he kind of hated hearing about it. It was hard to take the image of Sylvain as a fun and relaxing friend and compound that with a philanderer who left a string of broken hearts in his wake.

“How about we talk about someone else’s love life for once?” Sylvain said, agitation creeping into his voice. “Like Ashe? What about you?”

Ashe’s face reddened. “I don’t have a love life.”

“See, we should definitely focus on that,” Sylvain said, even though none of his friends looked entertained. “It’s way more tragic.”

“It is?” Ashe said with a frown.

Ingrid put a hand on his shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with being single, Sylvain’s just deflecting.”

“I’m not deflecting, this is genuine concern for our friend here,” Sylvain said. “We don’t need another Dimitri, do we?”

Felix snorted, not looking up from his phone. “Can’t make fun of him for being single anymore.”

“Wait, what?” Sylvain threw a frantic look to Dimitri.

There was a pale blush on Dimitri’s cheeks and he averted his gaze. “I started seeing someone recently.”

“And you didn’t tell me? Who is it? Wait, let me guess. It’s totally the hot teacher.”

Dimitri pinched the bridge of his nose. “You shouldn’t refer to her like that,” he said.

“I can’t believe I’m right. I can’t believe you worked up the courage to  _ talk  _ to her. I’m both proud and upset you didn’t tell me sooner.”

“Sorry. It’s still a new thing.”

Sylvain sighed and reclined further into the couch. “Felix, if you announce that you’re seeing someone too, I will have a heart attack right this second.”

“Guess I better make a Tinder,” Felix said in a dry tone, but the corners of his lips gave a small upturn at Sylvain’s dramatic and distressed groan.

“Come on, let’s finish this game before I have to listen to more whining,” Ingrid said. “Some of us have lives to get to after this.”

“My dearest friend, this is  _ Monopoly, _ ” Sylvain said dramatically. “No one’s going home tonight.”

“Then I’ll just have to win extra fast.”

Ashe had given up trying to make any headway in the game. Sylvain was a far better player than he might have pegged him for, plus his mind was wandering about that whole ‘love life’ conversation. He never really had that conversation before. Christophe trying to broach it was just weird and filled more with teasing, and Caspar and Linhardt didn’t have much to say on the matter. They didn’t have to struggle to find their relationship, after all.

He glanced at Sylvain. Why was it that he went through so many dates? Ashe didn’t think he should be so flippant with his love life either, if he was being honest. About half way through the evening he noticed Ingrid had returned to her phone, but so had Sylvain, and they both had growing looks of annoyance on their faces. Had something happened? As far as he could tell Sylvain was winning, so only one of them had the right to be frustrated.

He didn’t have the courage to ask what was wrong, and eventually the game came to a dramatic finish in which Sylvain made everyone go bankrupt in three consecutive turns like some mastermind who had been toying with them until the final hour. 

“It seems you remain the champion of Monopoly,” Dimitri said, not sounding too upset that he lost. 

“Naturally,” Sylvain preened. 

Ingrid quickly put down her phone. She had lost interest in the game hours ago. “Great, okay, Sylvain can we talk for a moment?” Ashe had never seen her look so frustrated.

“I’ve already given you all my amazing Monopoly tips.”

“Haha, no. Come on,” she said, getting up from the couch. The two of them disappeared into Sylvain’s room, closing the door behind them.

Ashe frowned and looked to Dimitri and Felix. “Did something happen?”

Felix shrugged. “I dunno.”

The two of them didn’t stay in there for long, and Ingrid looked less ticked off when she rejoined them. Felix got up and stretched his arms, much to the dismay of Angel, who had been happy to use him as a pillow for hours.

“If you two are done talking, we should be getting back,” Felix said.

Dimitri looked at an expensive watch on his wrist. “I didn’t realize how late it was. We should do this again sometime.”

“Yeah, you guys can come over whenever,” Sylvain said. “You know, as always. Travel safe and all that.”

They said their goodbyes, and Ingrid gave a look to Ashe that he couldn’t decipher, before they were gone and the apartment was much quieter.

“I’ll help you clean up,” Ashe offered.

“Thanks.” Sylvain began to pick up the pieces of the board game. “So, no love life, huh?”

“Hmm? O-oh, that. Uh, no, not really,” Ashe said with a shrug. 

“I’m surprised, actually. You’re so open and honest and kind. Girls love that sort of stuff, you’d think they’d be all over you.”

Ashe looked away. He was going to have to have a long, hard conversation with himself about how acceptable it was to enjoy being praised by Sylvain. “T-thanks, but--”

“Unless,” Sylvain cut him off, his voice falling lower. “It’s not girls you’re looking for?”

Ashe froze, staring at the plate in his hand before offering an awkward smile to Sylvain. “I’m, um, not sure, to be honest.”

He didn’t look up from the plate he was carrying, but he could feel Sylvain’s eyes look him over. “That’s fine,” he said. “With your good looks you could nail whoever you wanted.”

Ashe sort of wished that a hole would open up beneath him so he didn’t have to deal with the heat of his face or Sylvain’s warm, reassuring voice. If he ignored his rakish nature, Sylvain was showing himself to be awfully kind.

They finished cleaning up the rest of the dishes in comfortable silence. Well, mostly. Ashe wasn’t uncomfortable per se, but his mind  _ was  _ flitting about almost as rapidly as his heartbeats and staying in Sylvain’s presence any longer was probably going to do a number on his health.

“Thanks for helping me clean up,” Sylvain said once they were done.

“Oh, no problem.”

“You could stay longer, if you wanted.” The offer was innocent, but Ashe immediately felt on edge. 

“I-I have work, I should probably get some sleep,” he said.

“Okay. I’ll see you around then.”

When Ashe got back to the privacy of his own apartment he laid down in bed and stared at his ceiling, feeling things he did not want to be feeling. Sylvain’s compliments stuck in his head like a catchy song he desperately wanted to be rid of.  _ He thinks I’m good-looking.  _ He rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow, ignoring the feeling of Loog crawling on top of his back with his sharp claws.

Just thinking about it was getting him all flustered, and Sylvain wasn’t even in the room!  _ I just have to accept it, _ he thought solemnly.

_ I totally have a crush on my neighbor. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first uploaded this work, I *thought* I was almost done with the whole thing, but Sylvain's part kind of ran away from me and now there's gonna be three parts instead of two..... Anyway, this part is a real chaotic mess but I hope y'all enjoy regardless

Sylvain didn’t take new inclusions to his inner circle lightly. He was the most friendly of his childhood friends, but he had never made attempts to garner real friendships outside of them, and in turn they all kept close to each other. It was fine that Ashe was close to Ingrid, after all they were also all friends with Mercedes and Annette and Dedue, but Ingrid had been so righteously  _ annoyed  _ with Sylvain for purposely flustering and teasing Ashe during Monopoly that he just had to get a full scope of what this guy was like. Yeah, he seemed sweet and good right off the bat, but anyone could put on a front. Sylvain did it all the time.

And well, being told to lay off by Ingrid definitely made him want to do the opposite.

Ashe’s work hours frequently changed, so Sylvain couldn’t exactly make strict plans around seeing him, but he made sure that the days Ashe was free were entirely occupied with him. He invited himself over or had Ashe come over to build repertoire and try to get to know him better. So far all he had was ‘dead parents used to own a restaurant’ and ‘fetish for knights’, which wasn’t all that helpful.

He was also learning the boundaries of flirting. Too much, and Ashe would clam up and go quiet. But if he had just the right amount, he would open up like a book. Sylvain had to admit it was getting kind of fun, like his own little game. But if Ashe really was as earnest as he appeared, he’d probably feel guilty for it later.

Sylvain just  _ worried  _ sometimes, that was all. He had seen the brutal end of people trying to use him for what he had, and with Ingrid’s father finally gaining back some of his fortune, he just wanted to make sure the same didn’t happen to her. Even if it wasn’t likely, he had to know.

He was pretty happy though when Ashe invited him out to meet his own friends, because one of the best ways to get to know someone was through who they chose to keep close. Seeing as he only knew of himself and Ingrid as Ashe’s friend, so far he could say that he had very excellent taste, but he also kept in mind that he was probably walking into a den of nerds. 

Ashe opened the door for him, a smile on his face. “Just in time,” he said. “Linhardt and Caspar are already here.” Something crashed behind him, and the smile became just a little bit tighter. 

“It was Loog!” someone shouted inside.

Sylvain stepped in to see a sleepy looking green-haired guy holding Ashe’s cat away from the kitchen counter like it was a ragdoll, while a shorter man was picking up a glass that had been knocked over. Sylvain froze. He knew who the shorter guy was and he had not been expecting to see him here.

“Linhardt, Caspar, this is Sylvain,” Ashe introduced. 

“Hey,” Caspar said.  _ So he doesn’t recognize me. _ He looked to Linhardt and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t hold Loog like that!”

Sylvain put his hand on Ashe’s shoulder and leaned down to whisper in his ear while the two of them were distracted. Ashe stiffened under his touch. “Hey, uh, did you go to Adrestia High by any chance?”

“Hmm? U-uh, no, I was homeschooled after elementary school. Why?”

“So you didn’t go to school with Caspar?”

“Linhardt did. Is something wrong? Have you met before?”

“Nope, not at all,” Sylvain said smoothly, bringing his hand off of Ashe’s shoulder and leaning back. 

Ashe tilted his head. “Are you sure?”

“I’ll tell you about it later.” Ashe’s brows furrowed in concern. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.”

Really, it was a hilarious thing. Sylvain had been on the basketball team with Dimitri in high school, and Caspar had been their opponent in one of their last matches. Apparently Caspar didn’t take losing too well, because there was something or other about a fight and how Caspar totally flung himself at Dimitri like a madman and, according to Dimitri himself, bit him like some rabid animal. Sylvain never grew bored of hearing Dimitri and Ingrid retell it, and he wished he hadn’t been busy eyeing up a cheerleader during it.

Loog scrambled out of Linhardt’s loose hold and onto the floor, holding his tail high as he pranced up to Ashe to rub against his leg. Sylvain found him to be rather affectionate for a cat.

After some idle chatter, Sylvain offered to be the one to drive them to the bar. He ignored just how much louder Caspar was in a tiny space, especially since Ashe and Linhardt seemed so used to it, but he was more than grateful when they got to their destination so his ears would stop ringing.

Linhardt let out a dramatic sigh as they sat down together at a booth. “Well Ashe, Caspar’s been dying to know how you’ve been in your new apartment, so spill.”

“I’m not  _ dying  _ to know,” Caspar corrected, trying to play it off casually. 

“Everything has been going great so far,” Ashe said. “I mean, mostly.” His playful glance at Sylvain was endearing. 

Sylvain joined them for the first round of drinking, but he knew he was going to remain the responsible one here and not get drunk.

“So how’d you three become friends?” Sylvain asked. 

“Linhardt and I already knew each other when we were little,” Caspar said. “And Ashe moved nearby us when we were in middle school.”

Ashe nodded. “Yeah, after I was adopted, my older brother Christophe was worried I wasn’t going to make a lot of friends because I was being homeschooled, so he introduced me to Caspar and Linhardt, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

“He sounds nice,” Sylvain said, a little envious.

“He’s the best.” Ashe was beaming.

“Yeah, he used to pick Linhardt and me up from high school whenever we wanted,” Caspar said. “And he always stayed with Ashe during my sports games to cheer me on!”

“He’s really the type to look out for everyone,” Linhardt said, sounding fond. “I don’t know how he does it. Being that nice all the time sounds exhausting.”

“It just comes naturally to him,” Ashe said. “I’ll have to introduce you two sometime.”

“Yeah, I’d love to meet the guy,” Sylvain said. With someone like that in Ashe’s life, he could see how he came to be such an honest guy himself. Christophe sounded like a good influence.  _ Wonder what it’s like to have that… _

“Man, I miss high school,” Caspar bemoaned through his third drink.

Linhardt narrowed his sleepy looking eyes. “Why on earth would you miss that cesspool?”

“We had  _ fun _ , Linhardt. But mostly the sports thing.”

“Sports did wonders for your energy level,” Ashe said, his cheeks rosy and his eyes glazed. 

“What sort of sports did you play?” Sylvain asked, wondering if he might catch the other side of Dimitri’s story.

“Like, all of them,” Linhardt said. “It was exhausting, going to every meet and game…”

“It sure did cause a lot of drama too,” Ashe said.

“That guy had it coming!” Caspar shouted.

“Don’t,” Ashe whined, resting his head on the table. “We’ve heard this too many times. You’re going to bore Sylvain.”

Sylvain hoped this was what he thought it was. He fought back a grin. “Oh no, I’m all ears. What’d this guy have coming for him?”

Caspar’s eyes seemed to alight with an old rage. “It was one of the last basketball games of the season, and I  _ totally  _ would have won it for us if it weren’t for this guy, this  _ stupidly  _ tall blond guy, who kept getting in the way of every shot I’d try to make! And then, after we lost, he had the audacity to be all  _ oh, good game, you did well _ ! As if he didn’t totally sabotage my winning chance with his dumb height! God, it was like everyone from that high school was built like a tree!”

Sylvain was glad Ashe was too drunk to notice how hard he was trying to hold back his laughter. “Wow, he really sounds like a jerk.”

“I know!”

“I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it,” Ashe said. “I’d be embarrassed if I saw you fighting another student because of a basketball game.” Ah, so that was how he didn’t know it was Dimitri.

“It was quite the sight,” Linhardt said. “I don’t recall ever seeing Caspar so enraged.”

“You know what makes it even worse?” Caspar said, ignoring Linhardt and Ashe’s comments. “I got kicked off the team after! Because apparently I shouldn’t go picking fights with guys who totally deserve it. Man, if I ever see him again it’s on sight!”

Sylvain sure was glad Caspar didn’t recognize him then, but he was definitely going to ask Ashe to have their friend groups meet one day. Finally, he could have video evidence of Dimitri being beat up by a dude half his height.

Ashe sat up, a bit of his hair sticking to his cheek. “If you can’t tell, this is the biggest injustice Caspar has faced in his entire life.”

“No, I totally get it. Tall guys are the worst.”

Ashe snorted. His smile looked so goofy when he couldn’t control it. 

Linhardt slumped against Caspar with a yawn. Seeing as they had all become pretty red faced and quiet, Sylvain figured it was time to wrap things up here. He would have never guessed in a million years that meek and approachable Ashe could be friends with someone like Caspar, but then again, most people couldn’t picture Sylvain so much as existing happily in the same room as Felix, and they had been kind of a fun time. 

“I can handle the payment,” Sylvain said as they got ready to go. 

“No no no,” Ashe slurred, grabbing Sylvain’s hand to stop him from paying. “You can’t pay for it all.”

“It’s not a lot.”

“I don’t care.”

“I’m also not making a waiter’s salary and whatever those two do,” he said as he gestured to Caspar and Linhardt.

“No,” Ashe whined. 

“Ashe--”

“No,” he said again, with a little more firmness. His narrowed eyes reminded Sylvain a lot of an angry puppy.  _ Stubborn!  _ Even while drunk he didn’t want to impose on Sylvain’s wallet. Well, he wasn’t expecting that, but it was nice all the same. He was sort of happy his worries were being proven wrong one by one.

  
  
  
  


“Come on, guys,” Sylvain said as a very drunk Cas tried to help get Linhardt in the backseat of Sylvain’s car. They really looked like a mess right now. At least Ashe had gotten into the passenger seat without much trouble.

“I’m not going to class on Monday…” Linhardt muttered once he was finally in the backseat. Sylvain glanced back at him and then to Ashe, who only seemed slightly more adjusted and awake.

“You’re still in college?” Sylvain ventured asking as he turned onto the road. 

“It’s Friday!” Caspar protested. His voice was irritably loud in the small car. “You’re not gonna still be drunk on Monday!”

“He keeps switching his major,” Ashe mumbled, leaning his head against the car window. “Been in school forever.”

Well, his assumption that Linhardt might have been the responsible one of the trio went out the window. 

Getting the three of them safely back into Ashe’s apartment could have been easier if Linhardt wasn’t so set on falling asleep standing up or if Caspar wasn’t shouting like everyone in the room was down the street, but they managed to get through the door in one piece, and Sylvain was thoroughly exhausted with their shenanigans. This was why he never stayed the sober one with his own friends.

“I’m going to sleep,” Linhardt announced for the twelfth time that night as he shambled off to Ashe’s bedroom, Caspar close behind. Loog came running out of the bedroom upon the sudden intrusion.

“Did you just get kicked out of your own bedroom?” Sylvain asked Ashe.

“It’s fine,” Ashe said, yawning. “Ugh, I did not mean to drink that much.”

“Hey, we all gotta let loose sometimes.” Ashe swayed a bit as he stood there, so Sylvain put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “I’m gonna come back in the morning to make sure you guys are good.”

Ashe looked up at him with wide, earnest eyes, his whole face flushed red. He really was cute. “T-thanks, Sylvain.”

Sylvain may have been a little distracted by Ashe’s expression as he opened the door, because suddenly Loog was running right past him and out the door and Ashe’s face shifted from ‘adorably endearing’ to full blown horror.

“Loog!” Ashe cried out, pushing past Sylvain to get into the hall to hopefully catch his cat. Loog was faster though, and he darted off down a corner.

“Whoa hold on,” Sylvain said, grabbing Ashe’s arm before he could drunkenly stumble after his cat. “I’ll find him. Go back inside.”

Ashe was too weak to shake him off, but he sure did try. “No, I’ll go with you.” He was already closing his apartment door behind him. It was hard to keep arguing when Ashe looked like he was on the verge of tears.

“Loog?” Ashe called out weakly as they made their way down the hall. “Caspar is gonna be so upset…”

“The cat can’t exactly open doors,” Sylvain said. “He probably didn’t get far.”

“Oh God, I really hope he’s okay.” Wow, being drunk really made Ashe emotional. Noted. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he’s hurt.”

Ashe kept bumping into him as they searched for the cat, mumbling about how worried he was even though Loog hadn’t been out for more than a few minutes. Sylvain kind of understood, since he would be heartbroken if anything happened to Angel, but this was a little ridiculous. 

“Loog!” Ashe exclaimed, spotting the pale cat curled up at the bottom of a set of stairs in the building.

“You’ll startle him,” Sylvain said.

“Oh, right, of course.”

“Just stay there.  _ Please  _ do not try to go down the stairs,” Sylvain urged. When he was certain Ashe wasn’t going to move, he carefully made his way down to the cat. Loog stared up at him with big, innocent eyes and, thankfully, let Sylvain scoop him up. Ashe gave a happy cheer at the top of the stairs.

“Safe and sound,” Sylvain said as he passed Loog off to Ashe.

“Thank you,” Ashe said, his voice wavering. He began to murmur to Loog, switching between scolding him and being relieved as they walked back to his apartment.

“Loog means a lot to you, huh?” 

“He does!” Ashe’s eyes were shiny with tears. “He was just a little stray, and I don’t want him to be a stray again!” 

Once they made it back inside Ashe’s apartment, Loog scrambled out of his grip and hopped up on the nearby counter as if he had done nothing wrong and was resuming business as usual.

“Caspar and I found him,” Ashe explained as he scratched the top of Loog’s head. “He was so tiny, and it was raining, and I just had to take him in. I don’t know what I’d do without him. Sometimes he just reminds me of… me.” Some semblance of self awareness came back to him as he chuckled. “That sounds weird, doesn’t it?”

Sylvain shook his head. Ashe looked so vulnerable right now.

“Loog was really mean when we first took him in,” Ashe said. “He’d always scratch me or my siblings. He got over it, thankfully. I used to do bad things too when I was younger, before Lonato adopted me. I suppose Loog has forgotten all of that now, but I know I can’t.”

Sylvain stared at Ashe as if the answers to his new questions would suddenly burst forth. No, it’d be wrong to press this line of questioning when Ashe was so out of it. He wanted answers, but not for things this serious in this way.

He tried to divert the conversation. “Pets can be a pain when you’re first getting used to them. Angel used to always go at my brother.”

Ashe looked up at him, curious. “Your brother?”

Sylvain rubbed at the back of his neck. “Yeah. Miklan.”

“I don’t remember you talking about him before.”

“Well, he’s kinda like if you took your big brother and then made him the complete opposite. Replace all that overwhelming good stuff with bitterness and general trash attitude.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, Angel never really liked him. Though, I guess she’s not like Loog at all, because she never warmed up to Miklan. Which is totally justified. He’s the worst.”

Ashe frowned. “Sylvain, I…”

He shrugged. “It’s whatever. You should get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.” He made sure to close the door quickly behind him before Loog could try to make another break for it.

He paused in the hallway, his back to the closed door. Just talking about Miklan for a few seconds left a bad taste in his mouth, and he wondered if Ashe would bring it up when he was more sober tomorrow morning.  _ No, he’s probably gonna be all polite and nice about it and not say a word unless I bring it up. _

Okay, so Ashe was proving himself to be a better person than Sylvain might have suspected, which was fine. Great, even. But for some reason he was upset at the idea that he didn’t have a reason to keep flustering and prodding Ashe like he had been for the past few weeks. Maybe it had just been too long since his last hookup and he was desperate or something. That could be easily remedied. 

When he came back in the morning, Caspar was the one who let him in, looking chipper and not at all hungover. Linhardt looked absolutely murderous behind him, his hair having fallen messily out of its tie and hanging over his face. They left Ashe to him, since they both had things to attend to, and Sylvain found Ashe curled up on his couch with a light blanket thrown over him and his head half under a pillow. Loog was proudly sitting on said pillow.

It was rare to see Ashe in such disarray, with his normally neat silver hair sticking to his face in all directions and his lips parted ever so slightly to let out low, quiet breaths. Sylvain stared for perhaps a minute too long before gently wrapping his hands around Loog and lifting him off the pillow before he gave Ashe an even worse headache to wake up to. The cat spared him a glare before leaping out of his hands to wander into the now vacant bedroom.

The thump of Loog landing on the ground seemed to rouse Ashe, who let out a small, adorably confused noise as he opened his eyes, squinting in the sunlight that poured through his window. Sylvain quickly moved to close the blinds.

“Morning,” he greeted with probably too much enthusiasm as Ashe sat up, the pillow falling unceremoniously from his head to the floor. He slowly turned to look at Sylvain with an uncharacteristic scowl on his face.

“Um, morning,” he said in a dry voice. He rubbed his temple with a delicate finger. 

“Caspar let me in,” Sylvain explained. “He and Lin left a little bit ago.”

Ashe nodded in a slow, stilted movement. He spotted the water and painkillers that Caspar had left him on the nearby coffee table and took them. He sighed as he put the water down, sitting up.

“I think my back hurts more than my head,” Ashe murmured.

“Yeah, I don’t recommend couches,” Sylvain said. “Coulda stayed with me if you wanted. There’s always room for two in my bed.”

Ashe looked up at him with wide eyes, a blush spreading across his face. It was fun to mess with Ashe the way it was fun to mess with the nameless men and women he pursued. “I--”

“I mean, you were so cruelly kicked out of yours by Caspar and Linhardt. It’d be the least I could do.” He offered a smile that was anything but innocent. 

“R-right, of course. I mean, they always do that. I’ll, um, keep the offer in mind.” He tried to flatten the messy strands of his hair to make up for his reddening face. 

A loud meow sounded from the bedroom and Ashe clutched his head in pain as Loog slowly made his reappearance.

“What’s his problem?” Sylvain asked. 

“He’s needy,” Ashe supplied as Loog’s meows got louder until he sat at the base of the couch. Ashe picked him up, and luckily that seemed to silence him.

Sylvain chuckled. “I’ll make breakfast while you entertain the little prince.”

Ashe blinked at him. “Oh, no, I can’t ask that of you. It’s just a headache, I’m not useless.” He placed Loog down for a second and the cat went back to wailing like a toddler, causing Ashe to wince.

“I think you’re hands are a bit full,” Sylvain said, already searching the nearby kitchen for supplies. “Besides, I’m just putting everything you taught me to use.”

Ashe picked Loog back up and laid down on the couch, still in perfect view of the kitchen so he could watch Sylvain. “If you need help--”

“I’ll ask.”

Of course, Sylvain didn’t need help. Just because he hadn’t applied himself to cooking in the past didn’t mean he wasn’t a quick study now, and Ashe hadn’t exactly made things complex for him. It was pancakes, not rocket science. He made sure to put them on the sweeter side of what he had the first time, just to cater more to Ashe’s taste.

“Thank you for checking up on me,” Ashe said. Sylvain glanced up from what he was doing to see Ashe was poking at Loog’s paws. The cat’s eyes were closed in comfort.

“I said I would.”

“And for helping me find Loog.” Ashe was still blushing lightly. “I may have overreacted a bit.”

“No sweat.” Sylvain was waiting to see if Ashe was going to try to round the conversation back to talking about family and brothers and vague, upsetting backstories. “I’ll just keep in mind that you’re a very emotional drunk.”

“Heh, sorry. I didn’t mean to go off about relating to my cat. You must think I’m crazy.”

“Trust me, I’ve heard crazier.” He dropped to a more serious tone. “But it does raise a few questions.”

Ashe stared at him with an unreadable expression before looking back to Loog. “Sorry.”

Sylvain shrugged. “It’s fine.”  _ So no answers yet.  _ “Pancakes are done.”

Ashe got up with Loog in hand and shuffled his way over to the kitchen, peering curiously at what Sylvain had made. Loog himself immediately tried to shove his tiny pink nose into the nearest stack, only to be held far back by Ashe and placed on the seat next to him as if he were a proper person waiting for breakfast.

“So has the student surpassed the teacher?” Sylvain asked as Ashe took his first bite. 

“These are really good,” Ashe exclaimed, though Sylvain hadn’t expected him to be so surprised. It wasn’t like he had ever been a  _ bad  _ cook, just a lazy one. 

He did feel pretty proud that his cooking had put that smile on Ashe’s face, though. His smile made his whole face scrunch up and each freckle stood out. It was a better look than the somber one he had taken last night, that was for sure. 

“You’re staring,” Ashe said boldly. “Is something wrong?”

“What? I wasn’t staring,” Sylvain protested, even though he totally was. “I was just thinking!”

“About?”

“About how I should totally go walk Angel now before it gets any later,” Sylvain said in a smooth recovery.

“Oh. Um, thank you for all of this then. Really, it means a lot.”

Sylvain shrugged. “It’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me, I’m sure.” Honestly, Ashe’s earnest and open hearted nature was going to lead him to be taken advantage of one day if he wasn’t careful. Well, Sylvain didn’t mind looking out for him if he had to.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Sylvain took a casual sip of his tea as he watched the wind blow around the first fallen leaves. Summer was finally starting to see the end of its days, and he couldn’t be happier. “So tell me more,” he prompted to Dimitri, who sat across from him. The cozy cafe they were in provided a nice bustle of background noise to block out anyone snagging bits of their conversation.

“I’ve already told you all there is to tell,” Dimitri said. “We’re taking things slow right now.”

“Of course you are,” Sylvain sighed. “Are you ever gonna bring her around?”

“Byleth runs a rather busy schedule. It’s not like I haven’t been trying, though. I really want you all to get along with her.”

Sylvain was tempted to point out that embarrassing look of vulnerability and fondness that crossed Dimitri’s face whenever he talked about his girlfriend. “I get along with everyone, Dima.”

“I know. I just really--”

“Care? I get it, she’s special.”

Dimitri gave a small smile. “Well, yes. But enough about my love life. Ingrid told me something interesting recently.”

“And what would that be?” Sylvain asked as he went for another sip of his tea. 

“Apparently, she hasn’t been all that busy cleaning up after your trail of heartbreaks. I don’t want to boldly assume anything, but if you’ve been trying to clean up your act, then I’m very proud.” His smile was so honest.

Sylvain felt like his brain was short-circuiting for a moment. “Uh, what?”

Dimitri tilted his head. “If that’s not the case, then has something else come up? Either way, she seems quite relieved to have to deal with all that less.”

“Look, I’m not trying to clean up my act, I swear,” Sylvain said. But he  _ had  _ been going out less, hadn’t he? He was looking for less excuses to find a pretty face and a distracting evening. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it was because he was already being distracted often.

_ Ashe. _

It was just so easy to hang out with the guy. In the past, when Sylvain lived at home with his father, Dimitri, Ingrid and Felix were always around to entertain him or attempt to keep him in line. Of course, he always kept his antics up, but even he could admit he had gotten worse once he moved out to be on his own and farther from his friends. Ashe seemed to have weaseled himself into that spot now.

Not to mention, Ashe was definitely preoccupying his thoughts in ways his friends never had. He would have to be an idiot to not notice the way his neighbor stared at him or only seemed to be falling harder for each tease and flirt, and those moments remained more ingrained in his mind than any evening he spent with a stranger. Ashe having a crush was cute. Sylvain reciprocating it was daunting at best.

“I’ve just been up to other things,” Sylvain said after a minute. He could tell Dimitri either didn’t believe him or didn’t want to believe him. He’d probably love the idea of Sylvain finally taking his advice to quit with the date nights instead of some vague notion of ‘other things’. 

“I won’t pry if you don’t want to tell me,” Dimitri said after a moment, in that stupid soft tone he always took when he was being particularly serious and concerned. “But whatever it is must be good for you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sylvain brushed off. 

Dimitri glanced at his watch. “There was something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

Ah. Sylvain was waiting for the conversation to get to this point. 

“I saw Miklan at the office.”

“Felix told me,” Sylvain said.

“I didn’t know he was in town.”

“Neither did I.” He stared down at the remnants of his tea, feeling Dimitri’s eyes bore into him. 

“He didn’t stay long, and I haven’t seen him since. If he shows up near here--”

“You guys will be the first to know,” Sylvain said, finally finishing off his tea. “Relax,” he added when he saw how tense Dimitri’s shoulders had become. “If he wants to kick up dust with my old man, then that’s between them.”

Sylvain didn’t try to dwell on thoughts of his brother too much after that, or the way Dimitri couldn’t seem to be able to wipe that concerned puppy look from his face as they split ways. He was much happier to forget about the conversation in the arms of a stranger later that night (and no, he was not trying to prove anything to Ingrid or Dimitri about not breaking habit) and ignore the nagging feeling that he would, probably some day soon, have to deal with Miklan.

What  _ does  _ distract him for a minute was later that morning, as he was showing the guy he had over out of his apartment, the two of them bumped into Ashe in the hall, and he rightfully looked flustered, maybe even a hint of jealousy, before he quickly slipped inside his apartment. Sylvain wondered if Ashe had ever seen him with a guy before, and just like that, the worries of his family slipped out of his mind and he eased himself back into the life he had cultivated for himself. 

A few weeks later, he got a text from Ashe.

**Ashe: ** Hey! This might seem a bit out of nowhere, but my siblings are coming by in a few days, and they’ve been wanting to meet you for a while now. Do you maybe want to join us for dinner?

Well, definitely not what Sylvain was expecting. If he was being honest, lately he had been teasing the thought of Ashe finally coming clean about his crush, since he always looked like he was about to burst when Sylvain was around. Ashe would be a fun time, or at least he thought so. And then he really thought about it and he knew that Ashe would be a  _ long  _ time, a long term investment in a way he hadn’t tried since, like, high school. So the fantasy quickly ended there.

**Sylvain: ** you tell them about me often?

He smiled when he saw that Ashe was instantly typing a reply.

**Ashe: ** They just get curious is all! You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.

**Sylvain: ** oh no im down

Sylvain pictured Ashe’s younger siblings as perfect replicas of their big brother, all the freckles and smiling included. Hell, they were probably just as nerdy, and he wondered if he should be brushing up on those books about Loog just to make a good impression.

He was a little more curious about Christophe, however. Was he really as kind and genuine as Ashe made him out to be? 

It was stupid that he felt a little nervous about the whole thing; people and new faces had never exactly made Sylvain anxious in the past. He didn’t understand the concept of shyness even a little bit. 

Ashe’s apartment was surprisingly louder with his siblings in it than it had been when Caspar and Linhardt were there. There was a certain sort of volume that siblings who got along talked at that barely managed to be an “indoor voice”, and Sylvain had only experienced it a few times when he was younger and in the same room as Glenn and Felix.

“Sounds busy,” Sylvain observed as Ashe let him in.

“It always is with family,” Ashe said with all the fondness in the world. Ashe’s attention was immediately caught by his younger siblings squabbling at the kitchen counter, adding their own flare to whatever was being made. “Hold on, you two!” he said as he ran over to stop whatever they were doing.

Sylvain would have stepped in to see what they were doing and try to help if he weren’t being approached by the odd man out in the room. It was easy to tell who Christophe was when he was the only one with dark brown hair and blue eyes and fortunate genes that didn’t stop his growth at a whopping 5’9”. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you Sylvain,” he said, and wow, he may not look like Ashe, but their voices held such a similar cadence and kindness that Sylvain couldn’t help but picture a much younger Ashe imitating his new big brother right down to the word. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Good things, I hope,” Sylvain said. 

“Well, certainly things.” That didn’t inspire much hope. Just what did Ashe say about him?

“We’ve heard lots of things!” Came an excited voice from the kitchen. Ashe’s younger sister was triumphantly holding up a whisk in her hand that Ashe quickly took while she was distracted.

Ashe shoved the whisk back in the bowl. “Ciara--”

“You’ve heard about us too, right?” asked his younger brother. 

The exasperation in Ashe’s face quickly faded. “Of course he’s heard of you, Flynn.”

“I bet you talk more about those books more,” Ciara said. “Is that why you two are friends? Are you another one of his book pals?”

“Heh, we’re pals for other reasons,” Sylvain said, hiding his surprise that Ciara didn’t sound as interested in those kid books as he might have assumed. Maybe it was just Ashe’s thing.

Ciara gave an approving nod at this. 

“C’mon guys,” Ashe said as he stepped around his younger siblings. “At least don’t be in the kitchen while I’m trying to cook.”

“I can help if you want,” Christophe offered.

Ciara snorted. “Are you  _ trying  _ to burn down Ashe’s apartment?”

Sylvain raised an eyebrow. “I take it you’re not proficient in the kitchen?”

“I think I make perfectly fine meals,” Christophe said with crossed arms. “But I’ll admit, there’s room for improvement.”

Ciara took a seat at the counter, dramatically flopping her arms over the surface. “I take it back, maybe Christophe  _ should  _ help you, because this is taking too long!”

“It would’ve been done sooner if you two weren’t under foot,” Ashe pointed out. He sounded a lot more like a tired mother right now, which Sylvain found mildly hilarious.

“We absolutely were not,” Flynn said.

“Let’s not with the bickering,” Christophe said. 

Ciara pulled out the chair next to her and looked to Sylvain. “Take a seat! I wanna know why Ashe talks about you so much.”

Well, Sylvain sure didn’t mind a little preening, especially when it came with the bonus of Ashe looking flustered while he furiously mixed whatever was in the bowl he was holding. “I can think of a few reasons--”

“I talk about everyone I’ve met out here equally,” Ashe pointed out in a poor attempt to save some of his pride. “I just happen to see Sylvain more is all.” Christophe’s amused expression told Sylvain he was absolutely catching onto Ashe’s feelings, but it seemed to go over Flynn and Ciara’s heads.

“You run into him while you’re working sometimes, right?” Flynn asked.

Ashe looked to Sylvain. He wondered if Ashe had mentioned all the dates he had caught Sylvain on. “Not often.”

“It’s a nice restaurant,” Sylvain said. “And the service is  _ great. _ ”

“But it’s so expensive and stuffy,” Ciara said, wrinkling her nose.

Christophe crossed his arms. “You must have a pretty good job to dine there frequently.” 

Sylvain rubbed the back of his neck. Oh yeah, he’d definitely been on the receiving end of that scrutinizing big brother look before, back when he was younger and Glenn was none too happy about some shenanigan or other he’d wrapped Felix and Dimitri into. “Yeah, well, being a groomed heir to big business can get ya into a lot of places.”

Ashe looked up from the stovetop. He recalled mentioning it once or twice to Ashe, but he didn’t know what Ashe told his family in turn.

“Working in business is pretty respectable,” Christophe said with a pleased nod. Sylvain felt like he had passed a test. 

“It sounds boring,” Ciara said. “And you don’t look like you could be a businessman at all!” Okay, ouch.

“Ciara!” Ashe said at the same time Christophe sighed.

“I’m just sayin’ is all,” she said with a shrug. 

“What did you think I was for a living?” Sylvain asked, genuinely curious.

She looked him up and down. “Hmm… a stripper?”

Sylvain blinked.

_ A stripper? _

He glanced at Ashe, whose face was bright red and his eyes round in mortification as if  _ he  _ had been accused of looking like a stripper. Flynn barked out a sharp laugh that cut the tension while Christophe looked like he was warring between scolding her or laughing along with his brother.

“Well,” Sylvain began hesitantly. “Can’t say I was expecting that. Though now that I’m considering, I feel like I’d make a shit ton more money as a stripper.”

Ashe was still too stunned to speak, so Christophe took over damage control. “Ciara, you can’t just say things like that.”

She braced her hands on the counter. “He asked!”

“Sylvain, I’m so sorry--” Ashe began, sounding somewhere between embarrassed and annoyed.

“No, no, it’s fine. I mean, I’ve gotten worse.”  _ Stripper is definitely the first of its kind, though.  _ He noticed a concerned glint in Ashe’s gaze. 

“Where did you even pull  _ stripper  _ from?” Flynn said as he reigned in his laughter.

“Well, I mean!” She gestured to all of Sylvain as if that would answer the question. She looked between Ashe and Christophe, probably weighing her odds, before settling her gaze on Sylvain continuing. “Ashe said you were rich, like obnoxious rich, with crazy cash tips and all that, but also that you’re popular with girls  _ and  _ guys and that you’re always bringing them back to your apartment, and you’re not exactly an eyesore! You’ve got that whole  _ woosh  _ thing going with your hair and everything, it only made sense!” She said, doing her own hair flip at the woosh part.

Sylvain ran a hand through his hair. Should he change it?

“No more, please,” Ashe said, sounding on the edge of a breakdown. His face was redder than the tomatoes he had been chopping.

“Man, I was just gonna say you look like you work at a Walmart,” Flynn said.

“See, now that is way more offensive,” Sylvain joked.

“I wish my Walmart days paid me enough to live on my own and go to expensive restaurants,” Christophe bemoaned. Sylvain didn’t feel like admitting he had never worked a minimum wage job in his life.

“What is it you do now?” Sylvain asked, hoping the question didn’t derail into something of stripperiffic quality.

“Our dad owns a small publishing house,” Christophe said. “It’s a family business, you know the works. Of course, if I knew I wanted to inherit the business when I was a teenager, I would’ve never bothered with those retail jobs.” He shuddered as if the memories crept up his back.

Sylvain glanced at Ashe, who had gotten caught up in finishing up dinner. Even knowing that Ashe had become a waiter because of how it made him feel close to his parents, he was still surprised that he hadn’t wanted a job where he could always be surrounded by books.

“I’m just gonna cut out the middleman and jump right into working with you and Lonato,” Flynn said. 

Christophe reached out and ruffled his hair. “I won’t say that a retail job doesn’t build character, but I’d be happy to have you work with us.”

Sylvain felt a nostalgic well of jealousy rise up. How could he  _ not  _ be a little jealous of a perfectly functional brother relationship? There had been a time when he wished that he and Miklan were close, what it might have been like to have someone as equally confused about inheriting a business as him, trying to work toward a common goal and not being at each other’s throats. Now, he wanted nothing to do with Miklan, but the memories of longing remained.

“It’s done,” Ashe announced after a few more minutes of his siblings playfully bickering, bringing them the pasta he had been making as they all settled down at his table.

“Finally!” Ciara said. 

“Gotta say, I definitely miss your cooking at home,” Christophe said. 

“Microwave meals don't even come close!” Flynn added.

Ashe blinked. “Please don’t tell me you’re only eating microwave meals at home.”

“I try to make dinner sometimes,” Ciara said between a mouthful of food. “I should have watched Mom and Dad more when they were in the kitchen, like you did.”

Ashe’s smile was fond, if a little pained. “I’m always happy to teach if you want.” Sylvain was tempted to make a comment about how great a teacher Ashe was, but he felt like he had entered a conversation he didn’t belong in when Ciara mentioned her late parents.

“That reminds me,” Christophe said. “You can complain about my cooking all you want, but I brought some stuff to make dessert as a thank you.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Ashe said, halfway between being genuine and probably not wanting to see his brother’s cooking skills at work. 

“Yeah, I don’t think it’d be kind to poison Ashe in his own apartment,” Flynn said. 

“If you’re all so worried, Sylvain can help me,” Christophe decided.

“Don’t worry, I’m not so bad at cooking,” Sylvain said. “I’ve had a lot of one on ones with Ashe.”

Christophe grimaced. “Er, right.”

Something told him that if he messed things up here, Ingrid would not be swooping in to save his sorry ass.

“That was really how my friendship with Sylvain started,” Ashe said.

“One on ones?” Ciara drawled with a raised eyebrow.

“I meant, like, cooking! I taught him some things is all.”

“If you’re half as good a cook as Ashe,” Flynn said. “Then I want a trade. We can leave Christophe here.”

Christophe snorted. “With that attitude, Sylvain can have you guys! I’ll gladly be a rich business heir.”

“Eh, the money isn’t all that worth it,” Sylvain said. He could feel their curious eyes boring into him. 

“Well, of course you’d say that,” Ciara said. “Since you’ve got money in the first place.” She gave a dramatic gasp. “You’re not one of those detached from reality rich guys, are you?”

Sylvain forced a laugh. Yeah, he supposed he could say something like that only because he knew what it was like to have too much money and too important of a future. “No, no. I don’t think I am. All I’m saying is having money brings its own share of complications.”  _ Really fucking stupid ones. _

Ciara’s face told him that she didn’t really believe him, which was fine. It was better that she would never know those struggles in the first place. Ashe looked a little more concerned, and it was endearing to know that whatever he and his siblings felt, they all wore it on their faces unabashedly. Not a single one of them was halfway decent at hiding emotions.

When they finished dinner, Sylvain was enlisted in helping Christophe with dessert while the other three got distracted by Loog, who had finally woken up from his nap in the living room.

“So, what are we making?” Sylvain asked as Christophe pulled things from a bag he must have stored in Ashe’s fridge when he got there.

“Creme brulee.”

_ That sounds like a terrible idea.  _ “Sounds great.”

Christophe glanced at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you handle the whole fire thing.”

“See, I may be learning from Ashe, but we haven’t gotten to the whole  _ burn your food _ part yet.”

“Best way to learn things is trying them in the first place!”

That sort of optimistic take probably wasn’t great when it came to playing with fire, but who was Sylvain to argue?

“So,” Christophe said, and Sylvain had been expecting some conversation completely different from dessert to pop up. Why else would he have asked for his help? “I think I’ve hit the whole obligated to thank you moment, so thank you.”

“We barely started the creme brulee,” Sylvain joked, knowing where he was going with this.

Christophe chuckled, but it was almost somber. “You know what I mean. Obviously I was pretty nervous about Ashe moving out here alone. I know, he’s an adult and can handle himself, but I’m his brother. I’m obligated to worry and care, and I’m glad that he was able to make a friend.”

Hearing about brothers being obligated to care hurt, of course, as Sylvain had expected. It’d be nice if Miklan had felt even the smallest bit of that obligation. How different would Sylvain’s life had been if he had an older brother like Christophe looking out for him? He was lucky enough to have Glenn when he was younger. When Miklan started getting worse, started getting violent, Glenn would step in if he could. If he happened to be there. But he wasn’t much like Christophe, and like all Fraldarius men he suffered from the inability to easily show affection. Not that Sylvain wasn’t grateful, because he was beyond words. It was just that Christophe, Ashe, Ciara, they were all different as elder siblings.

And Sylvain didn’t really know what to do with that knowledge.

“I think Ashe could be friends with just about anyone,” Sylvain said.

“Yeah, I was worrying over nothing. But really, I’m glad. He, you know, talks about you a lot. And he seems happy.”

Sylvain glanced over to Ashe who was teasing Loog with a small feather toy. It was high time he admitted to himself that all the flirting had backfired and that the compliments were now just a natural reaction to seeing Ashe. He liked his smile and he liked him happy. Both pretty dangerous things to be feeling.

“That being said,” Christophe continued. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Sylvain raised an eyebrow. “Have I given the impression that I would?”

“Like I said, Ashe talks about you a lot. I can’t judge having a little fun in your youth,” he said as if he were decades older than Sylvain and not just a few years. “But don’t do that to him.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” Sylvain defended. No one had to know that he had been using Ashe’s crush against him for his own curiosity for a bit there. 

“Then we’re good,” Christophe said simply. “So, uh, do you not feel the same--”

“Now that is something I’ll keep to myself,” Sylvain said, knowing he didn’t have the will to deny it or accept it just yet. “I doubt Ashe would be happy about his brother knowing before he did, anyway.”

“Fair point.” Christophe eyed him for a moment. “Guess I was really worrying about nothing, huh? I mean, I’ve  _ heard  _ things, of course, so maybe I jumped to conclusions.”

For all that Sylvain did, he couldn’t imagine Ashe talking bad about him. “He talks more than I thought, then.”

“Oh, not just from Ashe. You’ve got a reputation, after all.”

Ah. He didn’t really care what others said about him because they would believe whatever they wanted to believe, but he didn’t think it would have reached Christophe’s ears. “I’m sure I’ve heard the worst of it,” Sylvain said.

He focused on making the creme brulee, but he could feel Christophe’s eyes on him. Was it pity? Was he still trying to splice what was rumor and what was true? It didn’t matter. Sylvain had tossed his reputation away years ago.

“Can I ask what you guys are making?” Ashe’s voice startled Sylvain, who had still been stuck in thought. He hadn’t even noticed him leave the living room.

“Creme brulee!” Christophe announced proudly.

Ashe’s face fell. “Christophe,  _ please  _ let me handle the sugar top.”

“I’m not going to burn down your kitchen,” Christophe assured. “I’m leaving that to Sylvain!”

“I also will not burn your kitchen down,” Sylvain said. “Promise.”

Ashe looked between the two of them for a moment before sighing. “Alright.”

Luckily, Sylvain keeps to his promise and absolutely does not burn anything in the kitchen, and for his first foray into desserts, the creme brulee isn’t half bad. Ciara, Flynn and Christophe insisted on cleaning up the dishes, which left Sylvain with Ashe on the balcony so the two of them could talk with some privacy.

“I’m sorry that my siblings can be a bit...much,” Ashe began immediately. “Ciara can be a bit of a loudmouth, but she really didn’t mean anything by it!”

“She’s really opened up my career path,” Sylvain said. Ashe huffed a little laugh. “Your siblings are great, Ashe. Don’t worry about it.”

Ashe was quiet for a moment, watching the car cruise by below. “Thanks. But I really meant about when money was brought up. She was kind of dismissive about what you said, that money isn’t all that worth it.”

“Oh. Nah, it’s fine.” Sylvain hadn’t taken it personally, at least. Ashe kept his eyes on the street and his face became somber.

“There was a point in our lives when money was a big issue,” Ashe said. “If it weren’t for Christophe and Lonato, I don’t know what would have become of us.”

“You’ve mentioned doing things you weren’t proud of,” Sylvain said, testing the waters.

Ashe nodded. “After my parents died, things were kind of a mess. We didn’t have any other family, so we were put in foster care together. It… wasn’t great.”

Sylvain had heard horror stories, both in person and online, and trying to picture Ashe’s smiling face among a crowd of orphaned children in some cookie cutter house that offered no warmth hurt more than he thought it might. Of course, there were plenty of good cases. He wished Ashe had just turned out to be a good case.

“I was lucky I had Ciara and Flynn with me, but there was always a threat of being separated. Our home was crowded and didn’t guarantee us necessities, so I started stealing things.” Ashe looked absolutely crestfallen. “I’m remiss to say I even got good at it. I knew it was wrong and I kept doing it, until I got in over my head and tried to break into a house. Needless to say, I got caught instantly.

“But I was lucky again, because the man who caught me didn’t immediately turn me into the police. Instead, he was kind and understanding. I imagine not too many people would welcome a failed thief into their house, but he did. Lonato, that is.”

Ashe sighed. Finally, he looked at Sylvain, his pale green eyes barely holding his own. His hair that usually sat tucked behind his ear had slipped out and was blowing in the breeze. “So yes, I’ve done things I’m not proud of. And I think maybe that explains Ciara’s reaction, too.”

“I’m sorry you all had to go through that,” Sylvain said. Sometimes, the unfairness of the world really made his blood boil. “But… you shouldn’t beat yourself up so much for what you did back then.”

Ashe frowned. “I stole, Sylvain. Even when I had a roof over my head, or could have figured something else out.”

“You were a kid with not a lot of options,” Sylvain said.  _ And despite all that, you still turned out like this.  _

Now, it wasn’t often that Sylvain was struck with a sudden insecurity, but he sure was in this moment. All of those awful things and Ashe had remained so kind and honest and open, not manipulative and put down or cold and crass. And where was Sylvain after one bad sibling relationship and  _ too  _ much money? Miserable, and he acted it all the time. He was angry at Miklan and at his future, some god awful future where a nameless bride waited at the end and he had no choice in the matter, so he hurt others and watched them hurt him in return.

Ashe had lost his parents, nearly lost his siblings, and was still genuine by the end of the day. Suddenly, Sylvain didn’t feel it right that he was here, pushing into Ashe’s life now that it had gotten good and promising. He didn’t need Sylvain’s whole slew of problems, too.

He realized Ashe was standing close to him now, and if he hadn’t just had a few minor revelations in one second he might have reached out to brush Ashe’s hair behind his ear and let him stay close, let him decide where this would go. But alas, Sylvain was a man of problems, primarily causing them, especially if they could backfire on him in the worst ways possible.

He took a step back from Ashe casually, as if he hadn’t noticed the proximity at all. He ignored the quick flash of panic that came over Ashe’s face that was quickly schooled into neutrality. 

“I’ll… try not to hold my past self too accountable,” Ashe said after a moment. He glanced inside his apartment. “We should go back in.”

“Yeah,” Sylvain said, and he wondered what a single step back could do to a relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the last part isn't out before the end of the month, then it probably won't be updated until early December, sorry! In the meantime, you can yell at me on twitter @Lady_of_Heart13


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its totally still december like i said i would upload during shhh its fine

Ashe knew he wasn’t doing a very good job of focusing on his conversation with Ingrid right now, but his thoughts were still thoroughly wrapped up in that night with Sylvain a week ago. His mind wouldn’t abandon the image of Sylvain staring down at him on the balcony, his face distant and unreadable, and that step he took back that felt more like a leap. That moment was an awful loop in his mind. Was it because of him sharing his past? No, that was the easy thought, the first one that came to him every time he thought of this. It stayed with him, despite Sylvain’s words, but a worse conclusion always chased it out.

At first, Ashe told himself that all he wanted to do was step closer at that moment, but he knew the truth. He had been hoping for something more -- a confession, a kiss, both, he wasn’t sure, but it seemed the perfect moment for it, and he was overwhelmed with a youthful hopefulness and romanticism that gave him a momentary boost of courage. And he guessed, well, Sylvain had seen that coming because he read body language the way Ashe read fantasy novels, and  _ that  _ was why he stepped back. It was a subtle, smooth rejection.

It was fine. Ashe was fine.

_ Ashe was not fine. _

“Ashe!” Ingrid shouted, and she must have been calling his name for a while if her furrowed brow was anything to go by.

“S-sorry, I was--”

“Lost in thought? I’ve noticed.” She frowned. He had invited her over to his apartment just to relax and have some tea, and now she probably thought he was ignoring her. “Come on, what’s up? It’s not like you to get so clammed up about what’s bothering you.”

Ashe stared down at his rapidly cooling tea. She was right, this wasn’t like him. But he hadn’t found the courage to spill all of his feelings regarding  _ her  _ childhood friend. What would she even think? Well, she would probably go off on Sylvain, which was the last thing he wanted, because there hadn’t even been anything concrete that happened between them. 

“It’s really dumb,” he said. “And also, I think you’d be… mad.”

“Ashe, I grew up with Dimitri, Felix and Sylvain doing every possible dumb thing they could think of. I assure you, whatever this is, I will not be mad.”

Ashe sighed before deciding to tell her the truth, even if he felt embarrassed the whole time. Admitting he liked Sylvain like that had been tough when he was just thinking about it, but saying it aloud made it more permanent and scary. There was no taking back these feelings now. Ingrid looked impassive while he confessed, which was even more worrisome. When he was finished, he took a sip of his brutally cold tea.

Ingrid crossed her arms. “Of all the people to--” She cut herself off. “I need to go talk to Sylvain.”

“No, no you don’t!” Ashe said quickly. “There’s nothing to tell him!”

She frowned. “Ashe…”

“I’m probably just thinking too much about things.” It was just a silly crush. He had gotten into it, so he could get himself out of it. It wasn’t  _ serious. _ He hoped.

Regardless of having a crush or not, it still stung that Sylvain had gone radio-silent on him. He couldn’t really explain that away and he was too scared to question if maybe their  _ friendship  _ had been impacted somehow. Weird feelings aside, he genuinely enjoyed Sylvain’s company, and he would be more heartbroken if he lost him as a friend than if his feelings were denied.

“Well, if you’re not going to let me talk to him,” said Ingrid. “Don’t you think you should?”

“I don’t know what to say,” Ashe admitted. Other than an apology for just laying his childhood trauma out like that. “A-anyway, I thought you would tell me I was worrying about nothing.”

“I thought about it,” she said with a contemplative nod. “But it sounds dismissive, and when it comes to Sylvain, there’s probably something worth worrying about. I doubt he got clammed up because of hearing about your past, though, and if you really think that you should talk.”

“I’d like to,” Ashe said. “I mean, I will.” He didn’t bring up how Sylvain had gone quiet on his texts. That would probably have Ingrid marching next door right this minute to begin a confrontation he wasn’t ready for. 

“But if he says anything stupid, you have to tell me,” Ingrid said. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this sooner.”

“Don’t take offense, but I didn’t really want you… helicoptering.”

“I do not--” She paused in thought and took a sip of her tea. “I will not ‘helicopter’ your relationship. But I have an important question. If, on the off chance, Sylvain comes to  _ me  _ about something regarding you, do you want to know?”

Ashe was quick to shake his head. “No, I’m sure he tells you things in confidence.” And besides, he didn’t think he could handle hearing anything negative just yet.

“On the occasions he deigns to open up,” she said. “We’re close, but he can still be… well, him.”

Ashe nodded. The moments Sylvain had chosen to open up to him were treasured but few. 

He knew he had his work cut out for him with this.

  
  
  
  


The opportunity to speak to Sylvain came sooner than Ashe expected, and of course in an awkward way. They had seen each other plenty of times in the hall they shared when their schedules occasionally matched up, and before it had been fine. Sylvain was usually the first to speak, always filled with energy no matter the time of day, and he never failed to get a smile or chuckle out of Ashe no matter how short the conversation.

But now things were awkward. Ashe didn’t think Sylvain was capable of acting or making anything awkward, and he certainly wasn’t fumbling badly with his keys the way Ashe was, but the tight-lipped, closed off expression was so unusual that it only served to rile up Ashe’s nerves further.  _ I told Ingrid I’d talk to him. _

“H-hey, Sylvain!” he said, cursing the crack in his voice. “How was your day?”

Immediately, Sylvain’s dull expression flipped into a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Ashe was surprised by how hurt he felt to be on the receiving end of a fake smile. He thought they were past something like that.

“Same old. You?”

“Oh, um, yeah. Same! Same.” Ashe gritted his teeth at his nervousness. If he could just get it together for two seconds… “Are you, uh, free to talk for a bit?”

Sylvain paused in unlocking his door, pulling the key out and leaning against it instead. “Something up?”

Ashe glanced around the empty hallway. He had been hoping more for a conversation inside his apartment. A hallway was the last place he’d want to hash things out, especially if he was going to come clean with his feelings! “Could we maybe talk inside?”

Sylvain’s expression didn’t change as he said, “Oh, I’m kind of on a time crunch right now. I don’t really have a moment for a, uh, talk.”

“You, um, you’ve been busier lately.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, but you know how it goes. That’s life. If you wanna talk, maybe I’ll hit you up sometime later in the week?”

_ Later in the week?  _ Ashe’s nerves were not going to last the week, he knew that much. Besides, Sylvain hadn’t said a word to him since that night. What if he kept putting it off? This wasn’t at all what Ashe was expecting, but maybe Sylvain really  _ was  _ too busy to deal with him. That actually made a lot of sense, considering Sylvain had an actual, high profile job while Ashe was nothing but a waiter with too much loose time on his hands.

Sylvain blinked at him. “Earth to Ashe? You still listening to me, bud?”

“Oh, yeah! That’s fine, later works, totally.”

“Great,” Sylvain said as he swiftly unlocked his door. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“R-right!” And then it was just Ashe standing in the hallway, an empty feeling in his stomach.  _ I’m sure I won’t have to wait long. He’s just busy. Just… busy. _

  
  
  
  
  
  


“Maybe I’m just an idiot,” Ashe moaned into another mouthful of ice cream. The best idea he could come up with after a week lapsed and still having no word from Sylvain was to invite Linhardt over and watch mopey romance movies together while he devoured an entire tub of ice cream. Well, Linhardt had forgone watching the movie entirely in favor of stretching his legs across Ashe’s lap and propping open a book, but Ashe was sure he had at least  _ some  _ of his attention.

“Maybe,” Linhardt said, flipping a page. 

Ashe took another bite of the mint chocolate chip ice cream, letting it melt in his mouth as he contemplated his situation. “I mean, what am I thinking, really? Sylvain may not choose to do the most decent things in his free time, but he’s still worlds apart from me. All of his friends are! There’s no space for someone like me there.”

Linhardt glanced up from his book. “You’ve been friends with him for this long.”

“But that’s different!” Ashe sighed, sinking further into his couch. “Should I just drop all this then? I… I’d be fine just staying friends, anyway.”

Linhardt actually scoffed at that. “I’m not so sure. You’re so honest and genuine. I think hiding something like that would make you short-circuit.”

Unfortunately, Linhardt was right. Ashe didn’t know how to contain himself sometimes, and when he thought about Sylvain, he knew he couldn’t go back to seeing him as just a friend. All the qualities he found admirable in him as a friend, like his perceptiveness and the way he looked after his friends, were now endearing traits that Ashe was falling in love with. It wasn’t hard to see why Sylvain got so many dates in a week, and that was without considering how physically attractive Sylvain was, too. Ashe tried to not think about that too much -- he didn’t need to get flustered anymore than normal.

Ashe pulled out his phone. Only a few messages from his siblings greeted him. “I don’t know what to do.”

“If you’re so worried he’s avoiding you, then go up to his door and demand a conversation.”

“But he’s probably busy! I don’t think he was lying about that… And I still don’t know what to say to him!” Any willpower Ashe had earlier in the week that might have pulled out a confession had drowned as time went on. Now, just the thought of speaking to Sylvain sent butterflies off in his stomach.

“Just say what you feel,” Linhardt said with a shrug. “Either he feels the same way, or he rejects you. What’s there to lose?”

“How is rejection  _ not  _ a loss? I don’t want to screw everything up.”

“But it’s not. By telling him, you get an answer one way or another. If you never say anything at all, then you’re losing out on the truth, and that’ll eat you up. Not knowing does nothing for you, and you lose out on all the things you could have done and could have gained. You could be making whole new memories with Sylvain, or you could finally get a chance to move on from this. Either way, it’s not a loss.”

Ashe paused in a bite full of ice cream, staring at Linhardt with round eyes. “That… actually makes some sense.”

“Of course it does. Honestly though, I’m not sure why  _ I  _ was your first pick to vent your feelings to.”

“Because you’re my friend! And, well, I kinda thought Caspar would do something reckless if I told him, and Ingrid would  _ definitely  _ do something reckless if I told her I chickened out.” He didn’t want Ingrid to feel like he was another broken heart she had to clean up after, because he  _ wasn’t. _

Linhardt peered at him over the top of his book. “How nice.”

“Thank you though, for the advice and putting up with me.”

He looked back at the pages. “It doesn’t mean much if you don’t do anything with it.”

Ashe sighed and swirled around the slowly melting ice cream. “I know. I’ll wait just a bit longer, and then… then I’ll tell him. I guess it’d be disingenuous to try and be his friend without letting him know how I really feel.” 

Linhardt closed his book and sat up. “Glad you could sort your feelings out.” Ashe was equally glad that, on the chance he screwed everything up with Sylvain, he would still have Linhardt and Caspar to come back to.

Ashe managed to refrain from eating the entire tub of ice cream by the end of the night, and Linhardt made it through most of his book (and Ashe’s movie) without falling asleep. He considered both to be good omens as Linhardt got up with a stretch.

“I’ll walk you out,” Ashe said, throwing a glance at the late hour shown on his clock. Linhardt gave a sleeping Loog a pat on the head as he collected his things and followed Ashe out of the apartment.

It was a late night in the middle of the week. Ashe wasn’t expecting to see anyone as they made their way through the lobby, least of all Sylvain. To make matters worse, he wasn’t alone. There was a woman holding onto his arm, all smiles and red face, likely from drinking, and she leaned against him so heavily that she was practically a draped coat on his body.

Ashe choked on his own breath and kept his eyes down, unsure if he was supposed to greet him and terrified of a conversation. If Sylvain tried to grab his attention in any way he didn’t notice, and he kept pace with Linhardt as they left the building together. Only then, once he was out in the cold and away from Sylvain and that woman, did he let his breath escape.

Linhardt paused, looking back at the apartment complex with narrowed eyes. “Busy, huh?” When he looked to Ashe, he was much more sympathetic, and that momentary glare was gone. “Ashe…”

“You should head home,” he said quickly with a shake of his head. “It’s fine.”

Linhardt frowned but argued no further, thankfully. Ashe wasn’t sure what he could say without tearing up, and he didn’t want to make a scene. Seeing Sylvain with that woman hurt in a way he didn’t think was possible and wasn’t prepared for.  _ Just a silly crush, right?  _ He thought as he headed back to his apartment, holding his breath in fear that he’d catch sight of Sylvain again.  _ Then why does it bother me so much? _

He tried not to think about the wall that divided his and Sylvain’s apartment as he laid in his bed that night, his head stuffed under his pillow. The last thing he wanted was to overhear something through the thin walls. That would surely make his night even worse than it already became. 

He supposed Sylvain really didn’t want to talk to him. Ashe really had scared him away, hadn’t he? He shouldn’t even be upset about it -- it wasn’t like Sylvain owed him an hour of his time, and he was entitled to take whoever he wanted back to his apartment with him. They weren’t together. This was fine. Ashe buried his face further into his bed, his face flushed and his heart pounding. He clutched at his chest as if it would force his mind and body to calm down, and he wished he could go back to the moments before that night.

Would they never share a casual moment of friendship again? Had Ashe messed it all up? All the confidence Ingrid and Linhardt helped build up in him fizzled out like the end of a sparkler, leaving him in darkness. He got a sudden reprieve from his downward spiral when his phone buzzed nearby. He squinted at the bright screen and looked at his message from Ingrid.

**Ingrid: ** ive been remarkably well behaved with keeping out of your situation, but its been a week sooo

He sighed and dialed her number, resting his head on top of his pillow and staring up at his ceiling. She picked up on the first ring with an expectant “ _ Well? What’s up? _ ”

“I don’t know anymore.”

“ _ What do you mean? Did you talk to him? He hasn’t said anything to me, by the way. _ ”

“I haven’t. I just… he’s been too busy for a conversation, I guess. Which I believe! He’s got a whole lot more to do than I do.”

Ingrid scoffed. “ _ Sylvain always makes time, though. Is he blowing you off? _ ”

Ashe winced. It sounded so harsh when she put it like that. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

Another deeper, angrier voice chimed in on the other end with a “ _ Sylvain is an idiot. _ ”

“Hi, Felix,” Ashe greeted with a sigh.

“ _ Forgot to mention you’re on speaker,” _ Ingrid said. “ _ Sorry, my hands are a bit full right now.” _

“Great.”

“ _ I can talk to Sylvain for you, _ ” she offered. Something shuffled in the background. 

“No, no. It’s fine.” He knew that would make things worse and end poorly for all parties. “Maybe having a little distance is a good thing, anyway. I feel like I need a break.”

“ _ We all need breaks from Sylvain _ ,” Felix said.

Ingrid gave an aggravated sigh at him. “ _ I get what you mean, Ashe. Sorry if I made you feel pressured to talk to him.” _

“No, you didn’t, don’t worry.”

They were quiet for a moment before Ingrid said, “ _ For what it’s worth, Sylvain really does like you. I mean, I can’t speak for him entirely, but at least as a friend, he’s really fond of you.” _

“ _ Like I said, Sylvain is an idiot, _ ” Felix said. The words didn’t offer much solace, but Ashe thought he understood the intentions behind it.

“ _ You know, I think I did hear Dimitri mention something recently,”  _ Ingrid mused. “ _ About Sylvain’s brother being around.” _

“R-really?” Ashe asked, sitting up. He recalled Sylvain talking about Miklan with no fond words and plenty of bitter tone.  _ Oh no, _ he thought as guilt built up in him. Here he was, worrying about what Sylvain thought of him and what might become of their relationship when clearly Sylvain had bigger things to deal with. He was such an idiot! For all he knew, Sylvain was more stressed than normal, and if he wanted to deal with it by inviting a woman to his apartment, how could Ashe possibly judge him? He clearly had more important things to deal with than a meek, annoying neighbor.

“ _ I’ll have to ask him about it,” _ Ingrid said. “ _ I mean, I’m not sure. I could be wrong.” _

Ashe flopped back down on his bed, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Was he really so desperately caught up in all his personal emotions that he thought it was okay to act like this, feel like this? He threw a glance at his closet. 

“...I think I’m going to head home for the next week,” he said quietly. Home would give him a moment to breathe and reassess himself, and if Sylvain was dealing with his brother, he probably didn’t want Ashe to be there causing even more drama. If he wanted Ashe to know about Miklan being in town, he would have told him. So, Ashe could at least take himself out of the equation and let Sylvain focus on whatever he needed to.

“ _ You sure? _ ”

“Like I said, I need a break. I don’t know, just for a bit. Besides, I kinda miss home.” Sure, he saw his siblings somewhat recently, but that was different from  _ home. _

“ _ If you think that’ll help… Keep in touch though, okay?” _

“Of course.”

With a sigh, he shut off his phone and waited for sleep to take him.

  
  
  
  


“Careful with that,” Ashe said, watching Christophe mash the pesto together with no tact. “Please, at least  _ try  _ to keep it in the mortar.”

“I am! Geez, when did you get so bossy?”

Ashe frowned and slowly pulled the pasta out of the box. It felt nice to be cooking back home in a kitchen he was comfortable with. The place was filled with nostalgia, and it was a reprieve from his much smaller apartment. 

“Sorry,” he said. Though really, Christophe had no tact. Letting him use a mortar and pestle was a bad idea, but he had been so eager to help Ashe with cooking. How could he say no?

Christophe glanced at him. “Ever since you walked through that door you’ve been cooking nonstop. Are we preparing for the apocalypse or something?”

“I thought you guys missed my cooking.”

“We do! Definitely, we do. But come on, something’s on your mind.”

Ashe sighed and watched the pasta fall into the boiling water. He didn’t come home to think about his problems. Those were supposed to stay at the apartment. “No, nothing really. Cooking just helps me relax.”

“So you  _ are  _ stressed.”

“Christophe, please.” His voice came out more tired and desperate than he intended, and for a moment only the sound of bubbling water filled the air. He stared at the pasta as if that would shake Christophe looking intently at the side of his face.

“Ashe.”

He didn’t look up at him.

“Hey. Stop ignoring me.” 

Ashe hated when he used his serious voice. He had avoided a conversation like this for as long as he could. Ciara and Flynn were less likely to pick up on his dropping mood, so he had spent as much time around them as he could, avoiding Lonato and Christophe as much as he could. Both were bound to want to help, even when there was nothing they could really do.

“Ashe, talk to me. I know you didn’t just come home because you missed cooking for us.” Christophe only waited a moment before turning off the boiling water, forcing Ashe to look at him with a tired expression. “Come on. Let’s sit down and you can tell me what this is all about.”

“But--”

“Dinner can wait.”

Ashe threw a forlorn look at the rapidly cooling pasta, knowing he would have to make another batch if he just let it sit there. Christophe gently tugged his arm though, and he followed him wordlessly out of the kitchen and to Ashe’s room. It hadn’t changed much from when he was a kid, and after months of living in his apartment, he welcomed the rush of nostalgia from being back here. It was the first place where he felt safe after his parents died.

Christophe closed the door behind them. “Now, no one can bother us, so you’re completely free to open up. And you’re definitely not wiggling out of this talk, so you can just stop all the protesting now.”

Ashe gave a dramatic sigh and flopped down onto his bed, Christophe sitting beside him while he stared up at the ceiling. “It’s Sylvain.”

“Of course it is.”

Ashe’s cheeks puffed out in an annoyed pout. “Well, if you knew then why are you hounding me?”

“It’s not like I know specifics! I mean really, did you think I was just going to let you sulk around the house?”

“No…” 

“So then, what happened? Do you need me to do something?”

“No! Definitely not.” He would never be able to look at Sylvain again if Christophe showed up to ‘do something.’ He wasn’t a kid who needed his big brother to step in when things got sticky. 

“Fine, fine. When I was at your apartment, you two seemed to be on good terms, though.”

Ashe tried not to think back to that night. It always made his stomach twist in knots. “We were. I just… I think I want something more, and when I tried to talk to him about it, he sort of avoided me. I mean, Ingrid told me his brother is around, so I think he’s busy and I’m just overthinking things.”

Ashe frowned and said, “I wish we  _ were _ talking, though. Sylvain’s mentioned Miklan before, and he really doesn’t like him. I want to be there for him, help him through whatever’s happening. Maybe I should have stayed…”

Christophe’s expression was sympathetic. “I can’t tell you what the right move is. If he needs some time alone to sort things out, then there’s nothing you can do about it. But, he owes you a bit more than  _ avoidance _ . I’m sure he could have taken a minute to do at least that.”

“I guess.” Some part of Ashe  _ was  _ frustrated by it all, but after hearing Ingrid tell him that Sylvain was dealing with his brother, he felt guilty asking for any attention at all. “I just don’t want to annoy him.”

Christophe put a hand on his chin in thought. “Y’know, I thought something bigger would have chased you home, though. If you heard about his brother being in town, why leave now?”

Ashe covered his face with his hands, the embarrassing memories of watching Sylvain walk into the apartment complex with a woman on his arm flooding his mind. “It’s really stupid now that I’m thinking about it.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Well, I had Linhardt over one night, and when I was walking him out I saw Sylvain with a woman after he told me he had been too busy to talk. I have no reason to be jealous! It’s not like he knows how I feel. But after that, I just felt so overwhelmed by everything, so here I am.”

Christophe crossed his arms. “It’s not that stupid, Ashe. Of course, you’d get upset seeing something like that -- you  _ like  _ him. As far as I’m concerned, you need to make him listen to you if he’s going to keep pushing you away.”

“Everyone keeps telling me I should just talk to him, but if he’s completely preoccupied with other things, won’t I seem impatient?”

“Who cares? You’ve got something to say, so say it. He owes you an open ear at the very least, since he wants to play difficult.”

“But his brother--”

“I get it. But it’s not like he’s said a word of it to you directly, and as his friend, he should have said at least  _ something  _ to you. So maybe it’s not a good time to pour your heart out to him, but it’s always a good time to be a good friend, even if you’re unsure about it. Besides, it’s not like you to be so avoidant.”

Ashe let his hands slide off his face and stared up at him. “You’re right. I know you are. I’ll have to talk to him one way or another. And I  _ do  _ want to help him wherever I can, even if he might not want my help.” Of that, he was certain. He would always be willing to help his friends.

“There ya go,” Christophe said with a big grin. “You don’t have to keep all these things to yourself, though. You could have called me.”

“I know. But I needed this anyway -- to be home and relax for a bit.” Renewed confidence filled him as he sat up. “Next time, I’ll be more open about it. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry.”

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door followed by it being violently swung open by Ciara and Flynn. “What’s happening? I thought you two were making dinner!”

“Sorry, sorry! We’ll get right to it!”

Ashe held onto his newfound courage as he went to finish making what he promised.

  
  
  
  
  


Ashe pulled his hood up as the first drizzle of the day began to fall from the gray sky above. A bag of newly bought cat food swung in his hands, and he was marching quickly back to his apartment before the sky poured down. He’d only been back a day, but he had spent most of it wondering how he was going to get Sylvain to speak to him and what he would say. He hadn’t recited a speech this much in his head since public speaking in high school!

Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance, and the drizzle began to pick up. He knew he should have brought an umbrella, and he pulled his hood up to block out the freezing rain, keeping his eyes to the ground as he did so. Just as the rain was really picking up, he heard a bark, and suddenly he was getting a face full of dog, pushing him over and onto the concrete.

“Oh! Geez, I’m--” The voice of the dog’s owner paused, and Ashe realized it was none other than Angel who was licking his face and barking up a storm. Luckily the streets had emptied fast, or he would have been melting with embarrassment. 

“H-hey, Angel,” Ashe said, sparing a glance up at a disheveled-looking Sylvain. He was sheltering himself from the rain with a briefcase over his head, his eyes wide as he stared back at him.  _ What’s that look for? What does it mean? _

Sylvain put his briefcase down and quickly wrapped his hands around her collar. “Come on, Angel, you’re gonna suffocate him.” Reluctantly, she pulled away and Sylvain was safely able to reattach the leash. 

Sylvain offered out his hand while Ashe’s heart threatened to leap out of his chest. Even being drenched in rain and wrangling a large dog with one hand couldn’t stop Sylvain from looking handsome, and the sudden realization that  _ now  _ was the only moment Ashe was going to get to tell him how he felt hit him like a truck. 

“Hey,” Sylvain said, slipping into a frown and wiggling his fingers to get his attention. “You okay?”

Ashe quickly took his hand before the moment could get any more awkward, muttering a small thank you. He had to speak now. He had to, before Sylvain could walk away, before he had to chase him down again. 

Sylvain cleared his throat. “Well, I should--”

“Sylvain. We have to talk.” Ashe forced his voice to be firm.

He glanced away. “Ashe, I want to, but now isn’t a great time.”

Ashe searched his eyes for a hint of what he was feeling, but he seemed despondent, like he was already shutting out the idea of a conversation. “If something’s wrong, I want to help you!”

Sylvain blinked at him, surprised by the outburst. “What?”

“We’re friends, aren’t we? I know something’s wrong. I don’t like to sit back and watch my friends go through tough things alone, you know.”

Sylvain wiped a wet strand of hair out of his eyes. “Of course we’re friends.” Hearing those words somewhat settled Ashe’s agitated heart. “But I’m not--”

“Ingrid told me. About Miklan.” Ashe crossed his arms to stop his body from shaking in the cold rain. “He’s in town, right?”

Sylvain rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.”

“I wish you had told me.”

“It’s not your problem. It’s not even really a  _ problem _ , and you have better things to do than worry about my life.”

“As long as we’re friends, I will  _ always  _ have time to worry about you.” The rainfall picked up around them. Despite the cold, Ashe’s whole body felt hot as he grappled with his nerves. 

“Look, Ashe, you’re a good person. Probably one of the best people I know, actually. Someone like me doesn’t really deserve all that good attention, and I didn’t want to bother you with it.”

“But you can! I want you to bother me with your problems. You think that because I’m a good person that I shouldn’t be around you?” He wasn’t going to even try and get into the fact that he wasn’t nearly as good as Sylvain thought him to be. He was just someone who  _ tried  _ to do good, and those were two different things as far as he could tell.

“There’s nothing to gain from being around someone like me. I get why Ingrid and Felix and Dimitri stick with me, and I’m lucky they do, but you? I just can’t wrap my head around it. You have Caspar and Linhardt, your siblings, a genuine and good life ahead of you.” Sylvain shook his head, droplets of water flying from his hair. 

Ashe narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? I’m not your friend because I think I deserve something from you. I want to be around you because you make me happy.” His face flushed at his own words, but he pushed on. “You make me laugh, and feel safe, and you made moving to a big city all by myself not so lonely and stressful. What I gain from being your friend is  _ you _ .”

Now was as good a time as any to admit the feelings that were threatening to break free from him. Ashe squared his shoulders and said, “I like you, Sylvain. I like being around you, and I think I want to be around you for a really, really long time. I’ve been slow to realize what I was feeling, but ever since that night when my siblings were over, I’ve come to understand it. I… I want to be with you. I want to matter to you the way you do to me.” 

His whole body was shaking, from cold or nerves he couldn’t tell, but his chest felt lighter with the words left between them. Was there hope? He didn’t know, and Sylvain’s expression hadn’t changed from the closed off one he had been keeping this entire time. He missed the laid back smile he usually had. The rain slicking his hair and the gloomy background made Sylvain seem small for once, like a sad and lonely child beyond Ashe’s reach. 

“Why?” Sylvain said, and there was a sharpness to his tone he hadn’t been expecting. “The way I act, the way I am, why would you want any of that? I ignored you. I did that intentionally! I’ve known about how you felt for a while now, and the minute I thought you were interested enough to say something, I treated you like shit! I didn’t avoid you because of Miklan, I avoided you because of  _ me.” _

Ashe flinched at his tone, the admission that Sylvain really had been trying to get away from him hitting like a sack of bricks. Part of him had known, part of him was ready to admit it, but hearing it hurt in a way he wasn’t prepared for. 

“You deserve better than me,” Sylvain continued. “After all that, you can’t possibly still feel that way. All I’d be good for in a relationship is messing up and dragging you down.”

The hurt was quickly replaced with a sudden irritation, and Ashe narrowed his eyes. “So that was all to just preemptively chase me away? Before I even got a say in it?”

“You wouldn’t be happy with me.” Next to him, Angel began to pace at the end of her leash, picking up on the rising tension between them.

“But maybe I would! I’d rather know than give up before I even get a chance.  _ That’s  _ what I deserve.” Ashe took a step forward. Sylvain was so close, but so unreachable, and it terrified him. “Neither of us are perfect people, Sylvain, but I’m not any worse for knowing you, and you aren’t the terrible person you think you are. I want to try this! I want that chance! And if I can make you happy too, then you deserve that chance as well!” As he spoke, he felt his face heat up and his eyes water. He was so emotional that he couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness or excitement, and he was grateful for the rain that rolled down his face, cooling his flushed cheeks.

Sylvain’s eyes widened, like he expected his sabotage to work and scare Ashe off once and for all. Clearly, he wasn’t accounting for Ashe’s stubbornness. 

“Of course it hurts to know you were ignoring me on purpose,” Ashe continued when Sylvain remained quiet. Now, he felt like he was grasping for things to say, unsure what was running through his friend’s mind right now. “But I do still feel this way. You always seem to find your way into my mind lately, and I don’t know what else it could possibly mean but this. I’m not… I understand if you don’t feel the same way.” He was prepared for it, even. “But I can’t accept you taking that choice away from me at all. So… so turn me down. I’ll be okay with your honest feelings.”

Sylvain was quiet and his stare unnerving.  _ This is going to hurt,  _ Ashe thought as he prepared himself for his words. 

Suddenly, Sylvain’s hands were on either side of his face, Angel’s leash slipping from his grip, and Ashe was tugged forward, his face tilted up to meet the cold, wet lips of his friend. The space between them heated up and the sound of rain was drowned out as all of Ashe’s senses focused on Sylvain.

Everything about Sylvain was desperate, not gentle, as he pressed closer and entangled his fingers in Ashe’s wet hair, pulling him in as if there were any more space left to close between them. He kissed Ashe like he was afraid he would disappear from beneath his grip and run away, so Ashe let his hands find their way into his shirt and gripped at the wet clothes as tightly as Sylvain was holding onto him. If it weren’t for the fingers in his hair and the lips tugging at his own, Ashe could have been convinced it was all a dream. 

Lightning flashed overhead and they were both soaked to the bone, but Sylvain pulled away from Ashe slowly like they were sharing a moment behind closed doors and not standing at the turn of a block in public. Ashe was mesmerized by the color that had taken to Sylvain’s face and the red of his lips.

“You’ll regret this,” Sylvain said quietly, half-heartedly, still holding Ashe’s face in his hands. “I’ll end up hurting you someway, somehow.”

“Then don’t hurt me,” Ashe said softly. 

Sylvain smiled, finally smiled after so many moments of frowns and awkward smirks that hid how he truly felt, and it was the most beautiful thing Ashe had ever seen. “You trust me not to? Even after all that?”

Ashe glanced away, still unwilling to move away from him. “I’ll learn to, if you give me the chance.”

Sylvain gave a soft chuckle at that, brushing a raindrop off of Ashe’s cheek. “Let’s get inside. My place?”

“Sure,” Ashe said, because at this moment Sylvain could have led him anywhere, even off a cliff, and he would have been absolutely at his mercy.

  
  
  


Ashe had momentarily popped into his own apartment to change into dry clothes, and when he came into Sylvain’s he saw him drying off his hair with a light, fluffy towel. Angel’s fur stuck out in funny angles, and Ashe guessed that Sylvain had tried his best to dry her off earlier. They sat next to each other on the couch, the newness and uncertainty of their bond charging the air. Now that they had touched once, Ashe didn’t want to be apart from him, and Sylvain seemed to have the same idea as his hand found its way to the nape of Ashe’s neck and he pulled him in for a kiss. It was softer than their one in the rain, and Ashe felt like he had settled somewhere high in the clouds.

Angel suddenly shaking out what was left of rain from her fur startled them out of their trance, and Sylvain’s small chuckle made his heart flutter. A thought popped into his head though as he threw another glance at Angel while Sylvain pressed gentle kisses along his jaw.

“Sylvain,” he said, his voice sounding too loud for the room.

“Hmm?”

Ashe gently pressed a hand to his shoulder to give them both some space, forcing him to look him in the eyes. “Can I ask about your brother?”

His expression immediately soured. “Yeesh, ever heard of timing?”

“Sorry, it’s just… you were walking Angel.”

“And?”

“Well, you were walking her in a full business suit with a briefcase, and Ingrid told me Miklan is around, and I remember you talking about how Angel hated him and…” Ashe could already tell that Sylvain was thinking of some sort of excuse to wiggle out of this conversation. “Just because we sorted out, uh, us, doesn’t mean I don’t want to understand the rest of what’s happening. I meant what I said. I want to hear your problems.”

Sylvain sighed, but it was a hopeful sort of resignation. Finally, he would open up, if just a little. “Well, Ingrid told you, like you keep saying. Nothing’s really happened -- I haven’t seen him personally yet or anything. But I like to be prepared.”

Ashe looked back to Angel who had settled her head on her paws with a huff, looking completely harmless despite her size. He took Sylvain’s hand in his own, frowning. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It has nothing to do with you.” His eyes were distant as he continued. “When we were really little, it wasn’t so bad, you know? It’s like I didn’t even notice things had changed until it was too late. God, I hate that I still have to deal with him. Being out here was supposed to be my escape, but I’m still…”

He sighed again, heavier this time. “It’s been a stressful few days,” he admitted. “Seeing him is just a reminder of every shitty thing he’s done to me. One time he pushed me down a well. I was just a kid!” He gritted his teeth, looking away. “There’s a lot that Miklan did that’s unforgivable. Maybe one day I’ll even tell you about all of them. But right now, I just want to forget he even exists.”

Ashe nodded, knowing that getting even this much out of Sylvain was a major step forward. He was glad he knew some of the extent of their relationship. “I understand. It’s not that I want to push on bad memories, but I want to make sure that you’re okay, and you can come to me about any of this.”

Sylvain’s lazy smile returned. “I know. I’ve always known that, really. Thank you, Ashe.” Something heavy seemed to have settled on his mind as he searched Ashe’s eyes. “For a long time, I always assumed that a lot of the stupid shit I do was because of how my childhood was. Because of how Miklan treated me. I’m starting to think that might not be fair to him or me.

“It’s kinda funny. Being around you makes me want to be better, but I’m also terrified I’ll never be good enough for you. Even now, none of this feels  _ real _ .”

Ashe frowned. “I kind of thought that way of you, actually. You’re somebody, you’ve got status, and I’m not much next to you. But neither of us deserve that line of thought at the end of the day. You’ll always be good enough for me because you make me happy, and I hope I do the same.”

Sylvain chuckled, pressing his forehead to Ashe’s. “Of course you do.” When he went to kiss him again, Ashe found there were no more questions pushing to the front of his mind, and he indulged in the presence of finally having what he desired.

  
  
  
  


“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ashe asked in a low voice. Sylvain kept his arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. “I’ve heard of double dating, but group dating seems a bit excessive, especially with the way our respective friends are.”

“It’s a great idea!” Sylvain said with a smirk. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure everyone is gonna have a great time.”

Across from them at the table in a restaurant, Ingrid was chatting amiably with Linhardt while Caspar was talking Glenn’s ear off with no regard for the look of boredom on the poor man’s face. It had been nerve wracking to tell them all of Ashe and Sylvain’s relationship a few weeks ago, but they all responded better than Ashe could hope, even if Ingrid was still holding some suspicions about Sylvain’s intentions. She was just so used to cleaning up after the string of broken hearts he left behind, and Ashe knew it would take some adjusting for her to realize this was different.

“Damn, Dimitri sure is taking his sweet time,” Sylvain said, looking at his phone.

“He should be here any second,” Ingrid said. “Have you met his girlfriend?”

“No, not yet. He’s being all secretive about her. I hope-- that’s him!” Sylvain raised his phone, and he looked a lot more giddy than Ashe was expecting. He couldn’t have been  _ that  _ excited to meet Dimitri’s girlfriend. And was he recording? Ashe leaned over to look at the phone and then glare up at Sylvain.

“Sylvain?” he said in a low, warning tone. Nothing about Dimitri entering seemed weird or off, and the woman he was with was, while strikingly beautiful, still quite average. 

There was a sudden dramatic gasp next to Ashe, and he realized that Caspar had shot to his feet the minute Dimitri approached their table.

“You!” Caspar shouted. “Basketball boy!”

Dimitri tilted his head, completely caught off guard and confused. “Pardon me?”

Ashe could only describe it as a war cry that came from Caspar as he leapt out of the booth. What happened after that varied depending on who was asked, with Caspar claiming it was a day of redemption and Ashe knowing it had to be the most humiliating day of his life. Of course, the only solid proof of the event was recorded on Sylvain’s phone, which had been waiting for the opportunity for months.

“You knew,” Ashe said once things had settled down and Dimitri and Caspar were seated as far from each other as possible at the booth. Sylvain looked down at him with a smirk and a shrug.

“Maybe.”

“How?”

“Dimitri and I were on the same basketball team in high school.”

Ashe shook his head, exasperated. “You’re the worst.”

“Aw, but you love me anyway.”

He couldn’t help a smile at that and he leaned closer into Sylvain. “Of course.” He was met with a small kiss on his cheek, and his heart warmed.

The lively conversation between his friends eventually swept him and Sylvain into it, and whatever thread of anxiety that had been stuck to Ashe’s back from the day that he moved to the city detached. Finally, he was met with an ease and sense of belonging he had been craving for months, and he settled into Sylvain’s warm touch, a smile spreading on his face.

_ Kiss me before sunrise _

_ Or I’m leaving you tonight _

_ My love found the place to stay and rest like bed _

_ Always and forever, meant to be together _

_ If we could change the world _

_ Today with you _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this! I'm still surprised a silly little rarepair like this got any attention, but I've seen the sylvashe tag grow since I first uploaded this, and that makes me happy! Hopefully I'll have more three houses fic to share with you all soon, so until then!! 
> 
> Twitter: Lady_of_Heart13


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